Have some (re)discovered Klipsch Heritage for serious 2 channel??

Had one Cornwall.Never could find a partner.Had some Heresys for a bit.In fact they were my first real hifi speaker.Still long for Cornwalls but it will probably never happen.

 

How does the ForteIII compare to the Heresy IV? I’m going to demo the Heresy IV but there’s no way to listen to the Forte III and the Forte IV is budgeting busting.

 

That to me says a lot about the Heresy IV's. Were you expecting that... ?

 

Circling back for a sanity check?? Vitals in the stable range again...?

 

Purchasing Harbeth M40's....Markets are down, advisories out to stay away from big purchases, recession, inflation, semi retired, have to buy a car, children are too old to sell, all culminating in eyeballing current equipment and wife's jewelry like dead men walking. I am a positive guy with an irritating seed. Stable, sure.

 

Wow, so much in common there... I have two 23 yr olds still at home (both just finished degrees - and yes too old to sell), I'm semi-retired since last June, need a new car and looking. have a **** pile of gear to sell (a lot), I get the feeling you play the markets since you mentioned it first (so do I).............

It's like I just read a post about my situation with thoughts of M40's. Amazing the parallels!

Wife's jewelry though? Yikes, I value my jewels too much to even think about that!! No way, Jose.

So I'd understand if you were to wait on the 40's...

 

My experience is limited to a pair of Forte III's I own. What is most striking is how sensitive they are to amp pairing. I have paired them with Sugden A21SE, Cary SLI-80HS, Luxman MQ-88uC, and Leben CS300xs. So both tubes and SS with power output ranging from 15W to 80W.

The only amp that truly made them sing was (and still is) the Leben. The Cary came in 2nd and the Sugden and Luxman actually sounded quite awful. With this finnicky nature of amp pairing I can easily see how there may be many polarizing points of view regarding these speakers.

 

Honestly, I'm left wondering what the 0/96 sounds like on the same equipment compared to the Forte III.... something tells me you'll have to be diplomatic in your answer! But maybe I'll be surprised, sorry if you've already stated somewhere else...

 

good time to buy as far as price is concerned, i have never seen them for less since becomming a fan over 7 years ago.

 

Lasalla’s in my market would be 25k a pair, even Fortes are 8k. At those prices I’d hope the products deliver “serious” 2 channel, whatever that means.

 

we ran a pair of Heresy 1 s for about 41 years. Heard lots of speakers over that time. Bass was obviously the lacking part. Recently purchased Forte IV. These guys play bass end well. Considering selling sub just bought last year.
I've always appreciated the "live" sound you can get from Klipsch. Together with tube amps Klipsch shine.

 

So three amps (Leben, Sugden, and Luxman) sound better paired with the O/96's although the Leben is almost as good in character paired with the Forte III's. O's have advantage of going down to 25Hz and just texturally a bit better with more nuance and impact. The Luxman (especially) and Sugden are substantially better paired with the O's. The Cary actually sounded worse paired with the O/96's and sounded much better than the Sugden or Luxman paired with the Forte III's.

 

I have a pair of vintage Quartets. These were the little sisters of the Forte and the Chorus. They are ~30 years old, updated with all the Crites updates about ten years ago. I listen to them about 8-10 hours per day. I thought about Forte III, then IV, but I don't know why. The Quartets still sound great and are probably a good fit for my space. I measured them with REW a couple of years ago and it appears they are still performing close to spec.

 

@avanti1960 Data point for you here re Cary/Forte match

 

Thanks for sharing. BTW, nice amps... but you probably knew that...

That's interesting that the best results for the III were with the lowest wattage amp (Leben 15W). And good data for others.

I remember when the III came out, I recall watching Guttenberg's review where he painted them as a "fun speaker great for rock, but not for classical." (not a direct quote, paraphrasing from memory). It's always about how you're driving them.... assuming you've got the rest further up the chain straightened out too

Those 0/96's with the amps you have must sound incredible.

Caught that too... Now there's no excuse!

 

Thanks! And yes, the 15W Leben pairing synergy definitely caught me by surprise. I think the pentode circuit really works well with Forte III's - much better than triode. I have sold the Sugden and Cary but still own the Luxman and Leben.

I also have a LM805ia that sounds gorgeous with the O/96's. I've always been curious how the LM would sound with the Forte III's but never curious enough to want to lug the 90 lb amp down to my basement where the Forte III system resides.
My suspicion is that the LM SET circuit would not match well with the Forte III's, despite the 48W but I could be wrong.

 

When I clicked your profile earlier, it refreshed my memory from a couple of weeks when I did it on another thread. I'm envious, you're having some serious audio fun there.

 

Honestly too early to make any comparisons, and its also been months since I heard the Fortes in my space. I'll try to update in a month or so..

 

Question for Cornwall owners, especially IV because I think the grills are a little different material -- grills on or off?

For that matter any Heritage owner, same question.

 

I keep them on.

 

I know you've had them a relatively short time - any time comparing, trying both ways?

 

Yeah, I’ve only had them for a year. They sound a little softer/smoother with the grills on, which I prefer. I’ve got them pointed right at my ears.

 

I've been experimenting the last couple of weeks, even at times playing a song or LP side I liked grill on then off. It's pretty easy to do so why not.

I've only had mine for 16 months, and I did it for a short time in the first month, but didn't spend enough time and was inconclusive. Plus they were still breaking in. And then just left them on.

Not a new topic of course, and fully aware that many think that *any* grill is evil but I'm more in the camp it depends on the speaker and the grill, not all are the same.

This was interesting Cornwall IV Grills

 

Stereophile gave the Cary/Forte III pairing a good review here:

Cary Audio SLI-80HS integrated amplifier

 

Yeah, that HS line is literally made to match the Klipsch Heritage line. The manufacturers must think they’re a pretty good pairing. I don’t remember seeing many examples of such a direct endorsement of partnering gear from different companies. I love my Rogue, but I have to admit it’s tempting.