Holy crap I forgot this thread existed and you actually found a speaker you love?! And my recommended KT-77's did the trick?! Congrats Banana's and keep on rocking with your Klipsch/Cary time machine!
I have had my Forte IV since they launched. I think I got one of the first pairs and have been loving them ever since. They really sound great with excellent electronics. I think that’s key with any speaker but the Forte are very revealing of good upstream equipment. They are a bitch to position. My room is on the small side and they sound best about 10” from the back wall. Go figure, you would think it would be too boomy. Just shows how much the room plays into it.
Oddio - in the end, the positioning requirement did the Forte in for my space... I never ended up trying them, but I was asking for trouble with the limited flexibility I had. That drawback became the Cornwalls strength though - more forgiving on the wall and toe in becomes the biggie. Easier.
I had a brief demo of the Cornwall IV's most recently. They were driven by a full compliment of McIntosh gear, in a very well done Dealers listening room. I had never heard of pair of the Heritage Series of Klipsch. I was also under the impression that the Klipsch signature tone, in the treble area was a "little hot". I picked a couple of tunes that I knew were recorded a "little hot" as well, and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of detail that was present, but not what I would call "bright" or fatiguing in any way. Huge wrap around scale with precision imaging, the Bass was big, but a little "soft" and not the tightest, but...not to the point of being a distraction. The overall presentation was extremely good, it really gave you a feeling what quality gear was capable of, when paired with the CW IV's and vice versa. I walked away impressed enough to discuss if I could bring my Amps and Preamp in to do an extended demo, price and delivery fees, which I usually don't bother to ask, if I'm not truly interested. He also stated that they couldn't keep the Forte IV in stock, that certainly says something for the OP's Speakers and all the rest of the Forte IV owners as well
Man I want Cornwalls next , then that will be it speaker wise. Maybe My dealer fired mine ( Heresy IV) up with Prima Luna integrated and within 30 seconds I told him to turn it off. “ I’ll take em” . Not that I was so impressed but I Only wanted hear them in my room. I didn’t choose….”poorly”.
I think the best thing about Heresy through Cornwall is that huge “wrap around” field of sound mentioned above is one of the things I like most about these speakers. They have a small footprint but sound big and have a great sense of impact and scale.
I was concerned about the Fortes being too hot or shouty, as is the reputation historically for Klipsch but my Fortes are not bright. In fact, the treble is just a touch rolled off but with great detail. I'm surprised how non-fatiguing they are. I can listen to them for hours and hours and my ears are just fine. The sound is forward and not shy. The live sound is what makes them so enjoyable to my ears though. It just gives you that feeling that the artist is in the room performing for you, moreso than any other speaker I've owned. If you want more bass the Fortes will deliver that in spades. It's not quite as fast as the bass as the Triangles, but still fast and most importantly it sounds like an instrument, not a boom or thud. If you do get a new pair give them at least 100 hours before you decide how they sound.
I'm planning a trip to Paducah, Ky. to hear the Heritage line. The Dealer also carries the Cary SLI-80. You've landed in a good place with the Cary delivering the goods to your Forte's. I'm looking forward to what I think, will be a very good demo
It should be a magic combo although I've read some of the people with Cornwalls prefer a beefier amp to get more bass out of them. Although the current SLI-80 amp uses solid state rectifiers which is supposed to improve the bass performance. My ca. 2005 SLI-80 uses tube rectification which is supposed to help with the "tube magic" at the expense of bass. But I can't imagine my amp wouldn't run the current CW's just fine. I would expect your demo to go really well as Cary/Heritage line is used at shows to demo them. And some of the "lifestyle" pics of the heritage line has a picture of the Cary amp in them, which gives me the warm fuzzies.
What do you want from the Cornwalls that you aren't getting from the Heresy? I only ask because I'm still curious about the Heresy because I don't like where I have to place the Fortes and I think the Heresy would be good near the wall for bass re-enforcement (more practical placement). I read A LOT of glowing reviews about the Heresy IV's and I absolutely love the look of them. And I now know that I enjoy the Klipsch heritage sound. I'm not planning on changing anything though, I've done enough of that this year.
The Heresy IV are great, don't get me wrong. I don't think you can go back once you have the Forte IV. It is markedly better. You will feel the need for a sub. They have almost exactly the same footprint.
What do you think is better on the Forte? Did you ever own the Heresy? I'm not sure I would want a sub. I think I've become an old cranky guy who likes polite bass now.
I had Heresy III and really liked them.... went to buy my daughter a Sound Bar and while there ended up demoing the Heresy IV and really liked them. I found out the Forte IV was being released in a few weeks and bought them sight unseen after listening to Forte III and CW IV.
The Forte just has more of what makes the Heresy great. I seldom use my sub , maybe for movies or when I want to rock out a little bit. Once I dialed in the placement the bass seemed just right without sub
Heresy needs a sub, regardless of what anyone says. I don't care what generation Heresy . It is necessary to have balanced sound from top to bottom. It rolls off sharp below 60 or 50 Hz.... I gave my brother a pair of Heresy II and they sound awesome with his Velodyne HGS 15 sub.
I seldom use sub since getting them. Its a REL that with the use of a Veleodyne sms 1 is rolled off sharply with a 36 dB slope at 50 Hz. It does not call attention to itself with music. Some tracks you can definitely hear it but it is only to augment the lowest octave. With movies it adds a lot of impact to explosions
I guess if you had a big room you might want a sub with Forte IV but it rocks without in my 15 x 13 or so room. They are so easy to drive I'm swapping out my 40 watt amps for a 7 watt 300b....
Keep us posted on the amp change. I'm pretty sure I could run my Fortes with a 300B tube amp as well. In fact there are still times I wish there was a smidge less bass.
I will definitely post a thread titled " Toolshed Amps 300b" once I get it . Matt from Toolshed has been great to deal with. It's close to being done, it is being wired this week . It will have Western Electric 300b and the best NOS driver tubes and rectifiers available. I have several pairs each of NOS Mullard, Phillips, Amperex, GE, and the holy grail Telefunken e180f driver / input tubes. I also was lucky to find 6 JAN 5r4gy date coded 1956 and 2 Ked Rad from 1945 in time capsule condition. Also have a nice Raytheon 274b ceramic base, NOS and a late 50's Raytheon 5r4gy Micanol base. I commissioned this amp in July so I have had a year to find NOS gold. I'm not a proponent of tube rolling but I never want to be in a position that I can't retube this amp. I basically can retube about 10 times so when croak my son in law can enjoy for many years. Funny thing about this amp is aside from the 300b the other tubes are cheap and plentiful...
congrats Pete, good stuff. to my ears the Fortes are more refined with none of the rough and raw sound that the Hereseys can exhibit.
