Care and Feeding of Forte I's?

[GlasgowGrip]

Hello Klipsch Folk!

As of this morning I'm finally a member of the Klipsch club, having just picked up a pair of black Forte I's from a CL seller. (I think a fair deal for both at 600, I feel comfortable that I did alright.) The drivers appear completely unmolested and sound good. The cabinets have the factory risers intact, and the black finish appears original. There is a little wear and tear on the finish, and a pretty fair coating of cat hair, so they will live in the garage until I get them cleaned up. I will post pictures as soon as I get some loaded onto the laptop.

So I've been reading up on Forte's here on AK, and feel I'm somewhat familiar with the common suggestions on crossover upgrades, Crites Ti diaphragms, and cabinet bracing/sealing. I will further investigate all of those options, and plan to pursue all of them as time permits. However, first things first, I'd love to ask a few basic questions as a Klipsch newbie if you all will indulge me...

Serial numbers: Sadly, the paper tags are gone from the rear of the cabinets. I'm hoping to find some other indication of serial numbers when I inspect more closely or take a look inside. Any tips on what to look for and/or where to look? Edit: I do not see any numbers stamped into the top rear edge of the cabinet.

Inspection: Any tips for removing and replacing drivers for inspection purposes? Is there caulking or gasketing that I should not be disturbing if I am not yet prepared to reseal the cabinets?

Finish: What is the black finish, a stain and/or lacquer? Any advice on the best way to clean, best way to touch up dings and scrapes, best way to "revive" without getting into a full-blown stripping/sanding/refinishing process? And any idea what kind of wood was used for the veneer?

Surrounds: The woofers and passives have rubber surrounds (which is a brilliant feature, by the way!) Any specific advice on what is the best way to clean them? Best products to use or ones to avoid? They definitely appear dirty or maybe discolored. And is there anything I should treat them with to condition/preserve the rubber and keep them from cracking?

Grilles: The grilles are intact with the Klipsch badges and the original cloth (other than the added layer of cat hair). Any cleaning tips? EDIT: They each seem to have a stain or watermark - at least I hope it was water. They do not have any kind of odor and they seem to be tobacco-free. I still need to give them a good vacuuming, plus whatever cleaning anyone here can recommend.

That's all for now, I will add some pictures asap. Many thanks in advance!! - Steve

 

[GlasgowGrip]

My new Klipsch babies - note the one on the right has some sort of damage to the frame along the bottom edge of the baffle board (water damage?):

 

[arcadia234]

I happened across a pair of Forte 1 drivers a few months back and shelled out 8 bills for them. I figured that was a bit high but they are flawless and already had the Crites upgrades. I put them in place of a pair of KG4s that I have been using for the last couple of years. So far so good.

I have been fussing with placement for awhile and hit what I believe is the sweet spot last night (which is how I found this post). The guy that I bought them from had them in a big boomy room pressed up against the wall and thought they sounded terrible. Lucky me.

I’m a big fan of the bold 70s receiver sound and the Fortes do not disappoint. Mmmmmm…. Sounds like the first 10 years of my childhood.

You are going to love these things!

 

[DEFTECHY]

Hello Klipsch Folk!

As of this morning I'm finally a member of the Klipsch club, having just picked up a pair of black Forte I's from a CL seller. (I think a fair deal for both at 600, I feel comfortable that I did alright.) The drivers appear completely unmolested and sound good. The cabinets have the factory risers intact, and the black finish appears original. There is a little wear and tear on the finish, and a pretty fair coating of cat hair, so they will live in the garage until I get them cleaned up. I will post pictures as soon as I get some loaded onto the laptop.

So I've been reading up on Forte's here on AK, and feel I'm somewhat familiar with the common suggestions on crossover upgrades, Crites Ti diaphragms, and cabinet bracing/sealing. I will further investigate all of those options, and plan to pursue all of them as time permits. However, first things first, I'd love to ask a few basic questions as a Klipsch newbie if you all will indulge me...

Serial numbers: Sadly, the paper tags are gone from the rear of the cabinets. I'm hoping to find some other indication of serial numbers when I inspect more closely or take a look inside. Any tips on what to look for and/or where to look? Edit: I do not see any numbers stamped into the top rear edge of the cabinet.

Inspection: Any tips for removing and replacing drivers for inspection purposes? Is there caulking or gasketing that I should not be disturbing if I am not yet prepared to reseal the cabinets?

Finish: What is the black finish, a stain and/or lacquer? Any advice on the best way to clean, best way to touch up dings and scrapes, best way to "revive" without getting into a full-blown stripping/sanding/refinishing process? And any idea what kind of wood was used for the veneer?

Surrounds: The woofers and passives have rubber surrounds (which is a brilliant feature, by the way!) Any specific advice on what is the best way to clean them? Best products to use or ones to avoid? They definitely appear dirty or maybe discolored. And is there anything I should treat them with to condition/preserve the rubber and keep them from cracking?

Grilles: The grilles are intact with the Klipsch badges and the original cloth (other than the added layer of cat hair). Any cleaning tips? EDIT: They each seem to have a stain or watermark - at least I hope it was water. They do not have any kind of odor and they seem to be tobacco-free. I still need to give them a good vacuuming, plus whatever cleaning anyone here can recommend.

That's all for now, I will add some pictures asap. Many thanks in advance!! - Steve

Congrats on the new speakers.

If the tags are missing there is no other serial numbers on the speakers unfortunately.

The drivers have a fiber gasket, if they are too flat or missing parts express sells new gaskets material you cut to fit, but you can pull any of the drivers & the gasket should stay intact if you are careful.

The black is just a semi gloss paint, you can touch up with any decent semi gloss paint, small chips & dings use a small brush & some rustoleum pain you can buy in a small can or can repaint the whole speaker with a roller or brush. For large areas or the whole speaker can be repainted with a spray can paint like ktylon semi flat black. The veneer is almost always oak & some guys sand them don & stain them for the classic oak look.

The rubber surrounds dont really need any product or chemical, just a water damp clean rag & lightly wipe them. if you do want to protect them use a product called 303 protectant used for auto & boat vinyl & rubber.

The grilles can be cleaned in a bathtub/shower or a garden hose, lightly spray them & use a light dish detergent like dawn & very lightly brush the stained areas with a toothbrush or rag, then rinse clean, the grille frames are plastic & water wont harm them, let them fully dry in the sun & they should look good as new. note: consider testing a small area fist to be sure the fabric wont fade, if whatever caused teh stain like cat pee or other hars chemical it could cause the black to fade but usually not.

As for the one cabinet issue, its hard to tell for sure in the pic but if it it water damage you cant really fix that without disassembling the cabinets & replacing with new wood, if the cabinet doesnt rattle up loud with heavy bass music, i would leave it alone or touch up with some black paint to make it look better... with the grilles on you dont see it anyways.

Hope that helps.

 

[GlasgowGrip]

I did pull one of the crossovers out far enough to take pictures, and I found a date stamp of "Jun 21 1988", so that's a pretty good clue to the actual age of these. There is only one electrolytic (47uF 100v 85DegC Non-polar) on the crossover so I'm thinking I may just update that one cap and call it a day on the crossovers, at least for now.


I'm definitely interested in the Crites Ti diaphragms. Any thoughts on which ones give the most bang for the buck? If I was only doing one I would guess the tweeter would stand to benefit more than the mid, or is it such a slam dunk that you always just do both at the same time?

You are going to love these things!

I already do! - and they are just sitting in my garage hooked up to a Marantz 1060 that I rebuilt last year, streaming FLAC's from my home server. Man oh man these are efficient speakers - love that too, though the neighbors may differ.

 

[arcadia234]

I replaced the cloth on mine using the steps here. They also sell a great replacement. You can get it cheap are elsewhere but I figured I could kick up a few bucks for the effort that they took to post that video. Keep those little Klipsch tags. Originals can be pricey. Replacement may be blasphemous to purists but it worked well for me.

As DefTechy stated, the veneer can be replaced if you so choose. There are a plethora (I was going to say mariad but the iPad spell checker didn’t like it) of videos on the Tube for reference. Some like the wood look and some vibe on the black. Neither will change the sound so do your thing.

I’m digging that 1060 too. Silver, vintage and knobby.

 

[Southern]

I did pull one of the crossovers out far enough to take pictures, and I found a date stamp of "Jun 21 1988", so that's a pretty good clue to the actual age of these. There is only one electrolytic (47uF 100v 85DegC Non-polar) on the crossover so I'm thinking I may just update that one cap and call it a day on the crossovers, at least for now.
View attachment 2307203

I'm definitely interested in the Crites Ti diaphragms. Any thoughts on which ones give the most bang for the buck? If I was only doing one I would guess the tweeter would stand to benefit more than the mid, or is it such a slam dunk that you always just do both at the same time?

I recommend replacing all the caps due to the age plus the factory ones are cheap.

I never heard the Ti mids but I am very pleased with my Crites Ti tweeters even with my upper 50's loud rock concert going ears.

 

[DEFTECHY]

I did pull one of the crossovers out far enough to take pictures, and I found a date stamp of "Jun 21 1988", so that's a pretty good clue to the actual age of these. There is only one electrolytic (47uF 100v 85DegC Non-polar) on the crossover so I'm thinking I may just update that one cap and call it a day on the crossovers, at least for now.
View attachment 2307203

I'm definitely interested in the Crites Ti diaphragms. Any thoughts on which ones give the most bang for the buck? If I was only doing one I would guess the tweeter would stand to benefit more than the mid, or is it such a slam dunk that you always just do both at the same time?


I already do! - and they are just sitting in my garage hooked up to a Marantz 1060 that I rebuilt last year, streaming FLAC's from my home server. Man oh man these are efficient speakers - love that too, though the neighbors may differ.

There is not much if any benefit to replacing just the electrolytic cap, its only a "woofer dump" & doesnt have any effect on the sound of the mids & tweets, the blue mylar caps are the ones for the mid & tweet section & unless the speakers sound dull with no crisp highs the mylar caps are probably ok. You can of course upgrade to a better quality cap like a polypropylene that crites sells or any other mid priced brand, some go with the expensive upper end caps like jantzen etc but thats all based on your budget & rest of your system, in other words, if you dont have top of the line gear or tubes etc you probably dont need top of the line caps & unlikely you or the average person could hear any difference. if you plan to replace the caps its best to do them all at once, I have used dayton 1% as well as ERSE brand caps on klipsch & other brand speakers with excellent results, very easy to replace those caps yourself if you have basic soldering skills.

As for the titanium diaphrams, people usually only do teh tweeters, crites doesnt sell Ti mid diaphrams & he says a crossover mod is needed to do the mids, & most that have done Ti mids said teh factory diaphrams sound better. I think you will be happy with the Ti tweeters & if you feel the need some decent budget capacitors. Also a good idea to do the mods to one speakers first & compare to the stock one & see if you like the results.

 

[Vince1966]

If you planning on replacing the caps look up JEM performance Audio, they are the Klipsch Factory authorized crossover repair shop and sell kits to bring them back to factory specs. I’ve used them in my Belle’s, La Scala’s and Heresy’s. The price is on par with Crites. You will not regret it. Also +1 on upgrading the tweeter to titanium from crites, I did my KLF-30’s and love the improvement. Good luck with them.

 

[RD Airlines]

Congrats!
I also obtained a pair of Forte 1s a few months ago. They are oak and have some water damage - not sure what my plan is there, but I've repaired other boxes in the past - so we'll see!

I would recommend the Crites. I have not installed them on the Fortes but I had a pair of Heresys a few years ago that I put the Crites in and they dramatically improved the sound. Very much worth the $ and effort.

 

[lico]

I don't get the part about the missing tags on the back figuring out if they were original. Open them up, Klipsch had stuff inside the box too.

 

[fredgarvin]

I would do a search at the Klipsch forum about the mid ti diaphragm. A lot of people do not like them, although they do like the tweeter ti.

 

[lightcapture]

I did pull one of the crossovers out far enough to take pictures, and I found a date stamp of "Jun 21 1988", so that's a pretty good clue to the actual age of these. There is only one electrolytic (47uF 100v 85DegC Non-polar) on the crossover so I'm thinking I may just update that one cap and call it a day on the crossovers, at least for now.
View attachment 2307203

I have a pair of Forte mkI myself in stock condition. It has a different x-over and the same as the Forte II. I wonder at the end of the Forte I run they started using the more sophisticated x-over that is used in the Forte II. Here's a photo of my Forte I x-over. Does anyone know definitively?

 

[Southern]

I have a pair of Forte mkI myself in stock condition. It has a different x-over and the same as the Forte II. I wonder at the end of the Forte I run they started using the more sophisticated x-over that is used in the Forte II. Here's a photo of my Forte I x-over. Does anyone know definitively?
View attachment 2321804

Schematic wise the later Forte 1 crossover should be identical to the earlier Forte 1 versions. The later versions they mounted the components on a circuit board.

 

[lightcapture]

Schematic wise the later Forte 1 crossover should be identical to the earlier Forte 1 versions. The later versions they mounted the components on a circuit board.
View attachment 2322068

It looks like both versions used circuit boards just different parts and different layout of them.
My x-over looks the same as the Forte II x-over. If the only difference between I and II is the midrange horn shape and 15" passive radiator then that would make sense.

 

[Southern]

There are some differences in the component values between the Forte I and Forte II xovers. The Forte I has the midrange driver wired out of phase due to the longer horn.
The early Forte I did not use a circuit board, the xover components were soldered to the back of the round speaker terminal cup.

 

[lightcapture]

There are some differences in the component values between the Forte I and Forte II xovers. The Forte I has the midrange driver wired out of phase due to the longer horn.View attachment 2322309

Thanks Southern. My xover is visually similar as the Forte II from these internet photos. Looks like the values are slightly different according to the schematics and both the mid and tweeter are out of phase. I wonder what would happen if I changed the values of the caps and phasing to that of the Forte II xover. What are the tweeter and mid drivers model numbers of I and II?

Here's even a photo of a cap upgrade on Forte II xover, looking pretty similar to mine:
https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/117281-review-bob-crites-forte-ii-and-kg4-xover-kit/

 

[Southern]

Thanks Southern. My xover is visually similar as the Forte II from these internet photos. Looks like the values are slightly different according to the schematics and both the mid and tweeter are out of phase. I wonder what would happen if I changed the values of the caps and phasing to that of the Forte II xover. What are the tweeter and mid drivers model numbers of I and II?

Here's even a photo of a cap upgrade on Forte II xover, looking pretty similar to mine:
https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/117281-review-bob-crites-forte-ii-and-kg4-xover-kit/
View attachment 2322430

The Forte and Forte II crossovers are designed for their respective drivers. You may not like the sound if you change the xover caps from the I to the II.
Attached are the sales flyers for both:

 

[lightcapture]

The Forte and Forte II crossovers are designed for their respective drivers. You may not like the sound if you change the xover caps from the I to the II.
Attached are the sales flyers for both:

The Forte and Forte II crossovers are designed for their respective drivers. You may not like the sound if you change the xover caps from the I to the II.
Attached are the sales flyers for both:

Do you know what compression drivers are used in each so I can figure it out in more detail?

 

[Southern]

Do you know what compression drivers are used in each so I can figure it out in more detail?

The drive components are listed on the sales flyers. If the compression drivers are a different part #, then I do not know. The tweeter is the same from the I & II, all other drivers are different.