Have any of you heard the Klipsch Forte speakers?

Made back in the mid 80's. 3 way speakers; horn midrange; 12 inch woofer; VERY efficient - a low powered 50w/ch amp will grive them hard;

Would not suggest them for a very large room though - unless u are getting more than one pair to fill the room.

I have heard them and they have that great klipsch midrange. they will sounds beautiful with a flea powered SET amp..

Fortes should make good rock speakers because their high sensitivity will turn a small amplifier signal into big, loud music with fast, unclipped transients, which make drums, cymbals and the pick on a guitar jump out more like real life.

The main limitations of the original 3-way horn-based Klipsch's are that the individual drivers are anything but time-aligned (which is more important to orchestral and acoustic music), and you have to be within the horns' dispersion angle to hear things right. When you get outside that sweet zone they can sound like being sideways to a megaphone. Their bass also doesn't extend down as far as something like a Totem, but the Forte is good and strong down to the 40s which is fine for rock.

The Fortes go down to 32 Hz. I just listed a pair on Ebay. I loved my Fortes and thought I would never sell them. Don't meet the WAF though. IMO the Forte was the last great speaker Klipsch made and I've owned several sets of Klispch both before and after the Forte. If you're ok with the horn sound the Fortes will do you fine.

too bad you can't ship em to canada :)
NC is too far a drive from Toronto! Oh well, once in a while a pair comes up for sale here...what i find interesting abot the forte model is the price range they seem to go for...I have seen them as low as 450, and as high as 1K, for similar condition...and Johnnyb53 is right - they do rock quite well!

I'd take Klipsch Hereseys over Fortes any day. The Forte came out as almost a compromise to follow the Heresey, Cornwall, Belle and KHorn. A finished pair look fairly decent but do need small stands.

Heresys... good speakers but no bottom. I owned a pair before the Fortes. A pair of Heresys will swallow up a big amp. They'll take the watts but still won't produce bass.

The Fortes cabinets are built with a small stand on the bottom.

I think the Fortes were just a logical and more conventional extension of the Heritage line. Say you want more bass than the Heresys - a pair of LaScalas/Cornwalls? Not exactly high on WAF ratio. An old roommate had a pair of LaScalas and they're not living-room ware. I didn't care for the sound of the LaScalas myself but evidently speaker placement is very important with them.

Mantisory, I'll meet you on the border - but you need to bring a years supply of Labatts Blue. Used to drive across the border in Michigan for cases of Labatts. The US Border police didn't seem to mind how many cases we brought back in.

But yeah they do seem to range in price a lot. I think a good pair normally goes for 600~700 on average. I've noticed people seems to pay a higher price for the ones that were well taken care of and single owner, with boxes stuff like that.

A years supply of Blue? hmmm...i dunno, I stopped drinking Blue years ago when I discovered guiness - nectar of the gods! Actually, there are quite a few canadian-made beers now that aer quite good (much better than labatts) and even some small american beer companies are starting to make real high-quality pints...
But, if that's what it takes :)
Byron

I've got a pair of forte II's which i've enjoyed. i used them for rock, blues, and jazz in my studio. room is 12x15, so not quite big enough for them to "breath" to get the perfect blend of bass, midrange, and treble. These speakers really shine with rock. if i had a bigger room these would still be my primary speakers.

i am going to look at a pair as early as tomorrow, and compare them with the cornwall and lascala! will report back my findings...