1989 Klipsch Forte II vs 2002 RF-7 Impressions (1 Viewer)

[Foxman]

So, I finally found some used Forte's as I have been considering the III's but couldn't spare the $$ and found these for $700 with Crites upgraded crossovers and tweeters. Doing a little A/B comparisons this morning and for the most part experienced what many others have. The 7's have much more punch, they are more aggressive and slightly more sensitive. I compared 4 songs, each from a different genre, and in 3 of the 4 songs the Forte's registered 1db lower than the 7's. Here is what amazed me. On Norah Jones' Come Away With Me, the 7's hit 85db and the Forte hit 79? I cannot explain the reason for this except that her voice on the 7's are driven more from the 10" driver in the absence of a dedicated midrange, which increased the db's since her voice was the height of the db range. And with the 7's being more aggressive, this was highlighted much more than on Tom Petty's Here Come's My Girl, The Four Seasons (Summer) orchestra, or Gonna Fly Now (Rocky Theme). Now with the difference in the db notes on the Norah Jones song, her voice and the detail in the Forte were much improved to me with my ears in my room on my gear. I suspect having a dedicated midrange smoothed out her voice to a more natural tone and volume, but I reserve the right to be wrong on that.

The 7's were much more lively and robust with Tom Petty's song, but the sound stage was better in my mind on every song on the Forte's, but the difference in spacing could be a factor. Overall, based on these 4 samples (limited though it is) these speakers come down to what you prefer. The Forte, at 30, sounds fantastic and more natural for music though laid back compared to the 7's which are much more punchy and aggressive sounding. Something I had never really noticed until the side by side brought it out.

I don't really have time for comparing performance on movies or other types of genre's of music, but if I had to guess, when you add in the surround, subs, and the center which carries 99% of the dialogue, I probably won't notice an appreciable difference between the Forte's and the 7's on movies.

Any thoughts, personal reflections or suggestions?

 

[JohnRice]

I owned the original Fortes, which I bought in '88, to the best of my recollection. They were my main speakers until early '93, when I got the speakers I'm still using today. I didn't sell them for a long time, though. I don't have a lot to contribute, but this is my gut feeling. At that time, Klipsch was more about making "good" speakers, and now they're more about making "impressive" speakers. The new ones are designed to grab you in the store and make you go "WOW!" The legacy ones, though, had better imaging and were more balanced. In other words, they were better from the perspective of what a speaker should do, in my opinion anyway.

 

[mjcmt]

Foxman, do you still own your Fortes? I'm using Forte I in a 2.0 movies/music system and find they have the most amazing room filling sound...clear, lively, 3D soundstage w/ tight rhythmic bass. No need for a center speaker because of the way they throw a soundstage, but I image a Heresy center w/ the Fortes spread even further apart would be stunning.