So, I grabbed these Forte III that got upgraded and I just want to say that I'm done looking for living room speakers. I'll pass these on.
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=166996.0They handled everything I could throw at them, at very high volume, with effortless clarity and ease, with full punchy bass down around 3dB at 31.5 in my room and useable down to 28 Hz area. Tested that on an A-weighted Radio Shack with tones so a basic idea but I wouldn't put it in a research paper. Regardless, they are full-range for any music except pipe organ, in my opinion. Even hip-hop if that's your thing.
Room: 13'X19' with speakers on long wall, one end partially open to large dining room and kitchen. They did their best 2"-4" from the front wall (toed that much) and 8' apart on center. Listening 10' away.
Full, big soundstage behind the speakers. Taller and wider; almost life-size but shallower than many "audiophile" speakers. It's my living room and does movies and series DVDs as well so I'll take the tradeoff. It's not completely two-dimensional, it's just not layered as deep as some other brands. They do everything extremely well except that last little bit of precise, holographic presentation, the creme' de la creme' of music reproduction, which requires a dedicated, treated room to achieve anyway, with any speaker.
If I had that dedicated music room trying to capture the utmost accuracy of my recordings, I might choose something different. If I wanted an enormously dynamic, no-compromise, cost-no-object, dedicated HT, I'd put them all around. This is not to say they're only great for that. The music is as clear, crisp, detailed, separated, dynamic, fast, punchy, tonally accurate, nuanced, smooth, and well . . . musical, as I have heard on any speaker I've auditioned.
Albums:
Blues Traveller-Four
Pink Floyd-Animals
Songs:
Melody Gardot-Love Me Like a River Does
Nina Nastasia-The Long Walk
Neko Case-Runnin' Out of Fools
Norah Jones-All a Dream
Stanley Jordan-Still Got the Blues
Bill Frissell-Blues for LA
Big Chuk-Meathunt
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown-Swamp Ghost
Mark Knopfler-Boom Like That
Pink Floyd-One of These Days
Cat Power-New York
Cat Power-I believe in You
Lyle Lovett-Here I am
A bunch of other songs that I ran half or quarter of just to test.
Those were all at nightclub volumes, which is to say as loud as I could stand it, which is damn loud. Speakers or amp didn't break a sweat. Old Onkyo never got more than warm. It was just serviced but only failed stuff was replaced. Keeps on soldiering, lol.
http://www.hifi-classic.net/review/onkyo-integra-a-8067-438.htmlGot another solid-state amp to try but it'll be next weekend before I can test that scenario. This one has a nice sound and current to spare as well so we'll see. It is getting long in the tooth.
Regardless of that it drove the Klipsch to nearly insane levels and the speakers never strained, collapsed, shrank, or otherwise lost their clarity and instrument separation or their soundstage. Not at any time. I never got max dB because my meter died and no more 9Vs in the house. But I put the dogs out first.
They are just as great for low to moderate listening, remaining full and detailed.
If you're a Klipsch person, I recommend this kit. Hell, any speaker owner.
Eventually I'll have him do the little KG 3.5. They have good bones too.
Awesome Speakers. Some of the best money I've ever spent.
