New club member, A few questions about my Forte II's

vice1984

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I just joined the Klipsch club with a set of Forte II's. However, they were shipped to me and both risers and several of the clips that hold the risers were broken. Are the risers and clips available anywhere or should I just build new stands for these? If so, should I keep the same height? Also, the paper on both woofers seems to be dried out and it has cracked in a few areas. Is this something that is going to affect the sound quality? Right now the speakers sound pretty nice, but I have already ordered new crossovers and tweeter upgrades from Bob Crites. Thanks.
 
your Forte or any speaker should be set up so that the centre of the mid horn is at your seated ear height. This will result in the best stage and image. This will depend upon you height and your seating but the average is around 38 - 40 inches up off the floor. You should simply remove the old and dated looking riser and use a good four post stand. You can build your own if you like. You can also experiment with anything that you may have handy which is 14 - 16 inches high so that you can hear what you will be getting.
Ihave not seen a cone dry and crack but if that is what happened there is a very easy fix. You can take some white wood glue (which is a PVA adhesive) and dilute it one part adhesive to five parts water and spray mist a light layer onto the cone. This will surface seal the paper and strengthen it without adding any mass of consequence. Make sure that you mask the surround suspension so no adhesive goes there.
I have attached a similar size loudspeaker on a Skylan four post stand. This is a Harbeth M40 and it has very similar dimensions to a Forte so you can see how nice they look without the old dated risers when placed on a four post stand. My Forte ll are on this exact stands and the sound is excellent and so are my old Quartet though those stands are about two inches taller to keep the mid horn at seated ear height. Hope this is of interest and helps, also welcome aboard.
 

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Thanks for the tips. Now that I look at the cone, it almost looks like a cat was scratching at it, I'll try the wood glue and see how it does.
 
I like those stands Moray, very nice. Al

Thanks Al they are real beauties and they enhance the sound quality enormously. The proportions are excellent thanks to the eye of Noel Nolan owner/designed of Slylan Stands. Noel's German distributor has a great looking site with lots of excellent photos where you can see clearly the attention to detail and the physical proportions that Noel uses to build stands that look as good as they sound. Anybody who wants to build a clone should study the proportions that Noel uses if they want a really good looking visually balanced stand. Better yet buy a pair from Noel (he builds in Alberta Canada), there is much technology in a set of these stands which does not meet the eye. They ship in a flat pack and they out perform any steel stand with ease. They represent excellent value and the decades of experience built into them is worth every cent. My every day listeners right now (a set of highly modified Heresy 3) sit up upon a four post set of 21 inches tall Skylan Stands. I have two pair of H3 and both are on the same stands. My sons modified Forte ll are up on a pair of 14 inch four post Skylan Stands as well and I have several other Skylan stands so I really do believe that they deliver. moray james.
 
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