Klipsch Forte II

[Audiobeer]

A Co-worker has a pair that is oak with dark walnut stain. Sorrounds are fine and they are in excellent shape. They have the boxes also. I am not trolling for a buyer but if they sound good I may buy them. So that's the question......what is the right price? I want to be able to but them and if they don't work out in my room sell them without losing to much. So for those who are familiar with these what would you pay for them?

[oznob]

The going price for those on Audiogon is $400 to $500. I recently sold a pair for $800 however, they had "full race" crossovers in them which cost me $350. A very nice sounding speaker IMHO. I had issue with the rear firing 15" passive radiator. I just never could get them to sound right in my room. I had them too close to the rear wall, was no other option in placement. I have heard a pair in my buddies house and they sound great! He was able to give them 2' of space from the rear wall and 3' from the side walls, 8' apart, listening area 12' from the speakers. He has a 10 watt set amp and they do sound great! A couple things to check. Stuff something into the mid horns so you can hear the tweeters. The diaphragms on those have a tendency to blow with abuse. If there is no sound or a bad distorted sound, the diaphragms would need to be replaced. They can easily be found on ebay, from Klipsch, or guys on the Klipsch forums page sell them. I think they run about $50 a pair. Woffers in them are pretty bullet proof as are the mids but check them as well. I have had blown mid diaphragms before and they are more money. All in all, I think they are a great speaker. They tend to like tubes more than SS. I ran mine with a Yamaha 100 watt receiver and I liked the sound. Although, playing music the last 35 years my have done some bad things to my hearing! Still no substitute for JBL's!:D

[norealtalent]

... So for those who So for those who are familiar with these what would you pay for them?
fifty cents, you pay shipping.;)

[Audiobeer]

Thanks Oznob!

[norealtalent]

Thanks Oznob!

Come on beer'. What about me?:p

[Michael Smith]

G'day Mr Beer
Sorry I wasn't on earlier,OZ KNOB how loud do you play the bloody things? after all they are only 99db at 1watt per meter and you are blowing mid ranges, say I have an idea take the football socks out of the mid range horn and stick them in your ears to stop the blood staining you shirts.
Seroiusly they are a good speaker,there are placement issues as the Knob suggests, I still have a pair in the arsenal and they have served well.
If you are going to use them for HT duty be sure you mate them with a Klipsch centre at around the same spl.
Have fun
Michael

[L100t Owner]

A Co-worker has a pair that is oak with dark walnut stain. Sorrounds are fine and they are in excellent shape. They have the boxes also. I am not trolling for a buyer but if they sound good I may buy them. So that's the question......what is the right price? I want to be able to but them and if they don't work out in my room sell them without losing to much. So for those who are familiar with these what would you pay for them?

$400 to $500 is a very good price for them if they are in excellent condition. You shoudl be able to easily get your money back out on the Klipsch forums. The only "wear" item in klipsch speakers is the caps (unless they were abused and teh tweets are blown - at 99 db efficiency they had to be turned up really loud and clipping). Crossover upgrades work well, but simply replacing the old caps with new paper in oil does wonders for them. The woofers are not deep throw so the surrounds are stiff and do not wear out.

Klipsch sound great with tubes, but also work very well with good SS and /or digital amps. I am running a tube pre and pro SS with two digital amps in tri-amped K Horns. Oddly enough, cheap Panasonic Sa XR series digital receivers are supposed to work very well with these. I am about to pick one up to use for HT with a set of Klipsch Belles as mains.

Great speakers for the money. If you go HT, you will need a pretty expensive center, an Academy, to match them. They go for $500 to $700 on ebay. I have one that I may part with.

Chris

[duaneage]

As a fromer Cornwall II owner I can attest to the efficiency. I really liked my CW2 speakers but I was forced to sell them because of size limits in my apartment in Korea. I was tempted to get another pair but never found any within driving distance so I forgot about that idea.

Imaging was not great but for a wall of sound they were right there. Interesting thing about mine was the cabinet was devoid of damping material, just wood no fiberglass.

I throttled a woofer because of a bad patchcord that sent a hum into one channel at full power too long before I had a chance to kill the amp. They were new and Klipsch sent me a replacement to Korea.

PWK was a real legend. The late 80's marked the end of Klipsch Inc. in my book and today they are just another HT company.

[oznob]

G'day Mr Beer
Sorry I wasn't on earlier,OZ KNOB how loud do you play the bloody things? after all they are only 99db at 1watt per meter and you are blowing mid ranges, say I have an idea take the football socks out of the mid range horn and stick them in your ears to stop the blood staining you shirts.
Seroiusly they are a good speaker,there are placement issues as the Knob suggests, I still have a pair in the arsenal and they have served well.
If you are going to use them for HT duty be sure you mate them with a Klipsch centre at around the same spl.
Have fun
Michael

Hi Michael,

For clarification, I have not personally blown the mid-range diaphrgms but I did purchase a pair of Cornwall II's that had bad mids. They belonged to a couple of yougsters who inherited the speakers from their deceased Father, who obviously took great care of them as the cabinets were flawless. How the crossovers survived the abuse from their cheapy Sony receiver at full blast, I'll never know! They had an ad in our local rag, "broken speakers for sale." Got them for $200, about $150 to fix the tweeters and mids and they were good to go. A friend of mine has them in his home and they sound great. The Forte II is a great real world size speaker. I currently have a pair of Chorus I speakers that are close to the Cornwalls but in a smaller cabinet. The 15" woofer in them is a pretty good quality driver, Eminance I think, with a 3" voice coil and 96oz magnet structure. They will move some air. My wife even likes them as the oak cabinets match our funiture. She hated the looks of the L-7's I used to have. I have to agree that Klipsch, like JBL in some regards, is certainly not the company it once was!

Mark

[Michael Smith]

G'day Oznob
yep the Chorus 1s do kick arse,you are correct the woofer was infact made by E'nce. Klipsch p/n was K48 E that 's what the E sounds for.
I still have an origional sales brochure for them ,would you like me to send you a copy if so let me know your email address and I will.
Digressing slightly take out the midrange horn and spray it with automotive body deadner it will sound heaps better it will take 3 coats, your'e probably wondering where in left field that came from, well in another life I was the Oz distributor for Klipsch and I still have a bit of old shit still lying around, so do me a favour and don't tell anybody.
Regards
Michael