klipsh forte III purchase

The new Forte III does sound amazingly good, and from what I've seen the Heritage line does have all the "current tech" they need. Take one apart and look inside (I did with my Heresy IIIs, as well as with everything else I buy...curious, just curious) and you'll find a clean design, with biwiring posts, premium internal wire and parts, and a bulletproof, well executed build all around. I chose the Heresy because I have a couple of REL subs so I don't need the size (large...they're large) of a Forte, and note I bought my Heresy IIIs (Capitol Edition...whatever that means) for about 1500 bucks and the Fortes are substantially more costly. Worth it though...most modern audio geeks don't care about Klipsch (I didn't really...I was way to hip for them) but a need for efficiency caused me to audition them...man was I wrong, as they're an absolute bargain relative to other stuff around the marketplace as they sound tremendous and are clearly built to last.

I saw a local pair of Forte IIs for $400ish that I’m thinking about. I could swap my older KEF Reference Model Twos for them to tide me over for Forte IIIs. Hmmm.

@wolf_garcia - If you think Fortes are "large", strap on some La Scallas or, gulp, K-Horns! I owned the La Scallas for several months but had to sell as they were too dang big. I loved the mid-range but overall thought the sound "unbalanced" compared to modern speakers. An ace engineer could take this design to new heights (maybe not at their reasonable price, however).
Can't wait to get Forte IIIs! They sound great (better balance) and mate well with low power tubes and Pass amps e.g. XA-25.

@dweller

Volti Audio’s Vitorra is probably the closest thing to a modern La Scala, of course, they don’t come cheap.

It doesn’t solve your ’too big’ problem, but before he died PWK was working on the successor to the Klipschorn which was going to be the Jubilee, a fully horn-loaded speaker but with the rear of the bass-horn built into the cabinet to free up the need to place them in corners.

Klipsch never released it as a consumer product, but adapted the design into one of their cinema speakers, turning it into a three-way (the PWK design was going to be a 2-way), and adding the requirement of an active crossover and biamping.

You can buy the cinema market Jubliee (it’s the KPT-535B) or if you contact certain Klipsch Cinema dealers they’ll build you a 2-way Jubilee with a passive crossover network so you don’t need the active crossover and biamping, and even throw some nice wood veneer on the front to make it a little bit more appropriate for a home setting.

Of course, ’appropriate for a home setting’ still looks like this:

http://wardsweb.org/misc/customjubs.jpg

i listened to the Forte III at Stereo Unlimited in San Diego with Rogue tube power, very competent sound.....with the passive - distance to rear wall is critical ...but in general much improved from older K models...
before ya flame me, i am a modified/ upgraded Cornwall owner....