Soundstage Heresy IV and Forte IV


I am interested in understanding the difference in soundstage between Heresy IV and Forte IV and the reasons for the difference.

Bass I can get, but concerning soundstage, what is causing the difference?

I hear that Forte soundstage is better than Heresy, but I also hear that the Cornwall soundstage is better than Forte. Arent Cornwall and Heresy using the same mid and tweeter components? Then why would Forte have better soundstage than Heresy?

128x128tonydennison

I bought a pair of new "open box" (Non sequential serial numbers, but close) Heresy III "Capitol Records Anniversary" speakers maybe 5 years ago or so...1500 bucks for the pair. They use titanium diaphragms in the mid and hi horns which I mention only because the IVs use a different design "poly" mid with seemingly no horn throat for compression...it’s simply stuck on the "tracktrix" horn flare. This wouldn’t matter except when I bought a new pair of IVs the mids just sounded bad compared to my IIIs. Real bad...smile reduction...sold the IVs and kept the IIIs. Maybe it was that particular pair of IVs but life is too short to tolerate unbalanced peaky mids. Ya know? As far as soundstage goes, sitting with my earballs maybe 8 or 9 feet from the speakers, the soundstage is amazing...doesn’t seem to be coming from the floor one bit. I use 2 older REL subs so the low end is covered, and all my other gear is well vetted. I’ve considered trying Forte IIIs as they also have titanium mids but these days it's kind of hard to find a clean pair...the Volti Razz also interests me but their NO RETURNS FOR ANY REASON policy rules them out...am I supposed to go to some audio show and sit in front of a pair for hours? I refuse. I’ll never use anything but horns in my main system as the increased efficiency and tonal immediacy beats "drivers in a box" all day...and all night...

@wolf_garcia 

 

Concerning your wonky mids.....are you should theybwere broken-in? My were wonky until break-in.

 

Yeah, Im loving the horn thing.  BAMM!

Tony, when I had mine on stands the soundstage seemed to open up even more. I felt that once they were on the stands all my small list of issues with them seemed to go away. The H4's on stands with a sub and 40w from my Mac240 was sublime. 

I was listening to my Heresy IV's last evening and the soundstage was very wide....beyond the speakers themselves.  That's what gives them that " U R There " presentation.