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recommendation of a Klipsch center channel to compliment my Forte I

L

lightcapture

Super Member
I'm looking for a recommendation of a Klipsch center channel to compliment my Forte I powered by a Yamaha RX-V681 AVR.

The audio rack has 8" height available otherwise I'd consider a Heresy. I'm considering the R-52c center channel speaker because it's not ported to minimize boominess, but see that there are so many other options on their website.

All-in-all, I'm looking for a good sonic match to my all original Forte I L/R speakers.

https://www.klipsch.com/center-speaker
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LOL, you expect me to read all the details? (sarcasm).
Ya, I'm sorry - I skimmed right over your details.
The Klipsch Academy is heritage-type center speaker, but still too large for your space.
As I look at your picture, my style would be to put a KLF-C7 (hard to find these days) on top your stand, put the TV on top of that.
Maybe cause I'm old, I like an oversized center, and I bias the mixing to vocals, I have a hard time hearing speech on new movies.
You can google those models, info will come up.
https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/118691-center-channel-academy-vs-klf-c7/
 
Not to thread crap too much...Just a bit about an Academy.

I had a pair of LaScalas. Somewhere around 1990'ish, called a dealer in Ohio. Asked what they recommend for center flanked by LaScalas. Salesman said Academy. I said send me three of them (this was out of state).

Bought them sight/sound unseen. My Yamaha processor then had front heights so I was using them for center and front height speakers.

Long story short, it was an epic fail, when mated to LaScalas. The LaScalas simply drown it/them out. Dinkered around with them and sold them maybe 15 years later.

At one time, I understand their price jumped up to something like $1,000/each (on the used market) as they were one of the rare as hens teeth speakers. (no, I didn't sell mine at the peak of their pricing, I waited until it their price was back down to 250/300.

VERY nice sounding speaker. When matched to a proper mate (ie, not a LaScala) my understanding is they are a sonic match.
 
Coytee said:
Not to thread crap too much...Just a bit about an Academy.

I had a pair of LaScalas. Somewhere around 1990'ish, called a dealer in Ohio. Asked what they recommend for center flanked by LaScalas. Salesman said Academy. I said send me three of them (this was out of state).

Bought them sight/sound unseen. My Yamaha processor then had front heights so I was using them for center and front height speakers.

Long story short, it was an epic fail, when mated to LaScalas. The LaScalas simply drown it/them out. Dinkered around with them and sold them maybe 15 years later.

At one time, I understand their price jumped up to something like $1,000/each (on the used market) as they were one of the rare as hens teeth speakers. (no, I didn't sell mine at the peak of their pricing, I waited until it their price was back down to 250/300.

VERY nice sounding speaker. When matched to a proper mate (ie, not a LaScala) my understanding is they are a sonic match.
Click to expand...
Yes. My Forte 1's were perfectly matched to the Academy. I enjoyed that setup for a time until I gained another set of Forte's and used one as a center channel :)
 
I'm in similar predicament. Don't have a lot of height. If the speaker is extremely low profile, it can be wide because it can go on top of the cabinet and not block the tv view, but otherwise need narrow to fit in cabinet (I think I've got 21.75" width). Have a KV-1 but it sounds awful with the Forte IIs; Muddy with very little treble which makes it terrible for dialogue. Wondering if KV-2 would be substantially better because Tractrix horn? KV-3 and 4 are too wide to fit as are the Academy and KLF-C7. Open to other brands as well but needs to be short and narrow. I ran "phantom" center for years but really would like a center to fill the void.
 
I am afraid you're running into the laws of physics here. Drivers that can create a comparable sound to a Forte, just aren't going to be found in a size that small. They just don't work when scaled down that much...

I ran into an analogous situation with a client, who had a pair of JBL 4343 studio monitors as his L and R home theater speakers. He tried all sorts of stuff. I wound up building a rather large (but still a lot smaller than a 4343!) using the same 077 tweeter, H91/92 mid horn, and a pair of JBL 2121 10" in a box with the two woofers flanking the horn and tweeter. THAT worked.

You might be looking at a similar situation. Maybe find an orphan Heresy, harvest the tweeter, mid horn and crossover network, and pair them up with two high-efficiency paper-cone 6.5" midbass drivers in a custom horizontal enclosure. It will still take a moderately large enclosure (probably like total of 0.75 to 1.0 cubic feet), but it could possibly match the timbre, tonal balance and dynamics of the Forte.

Regards,
Gordon.
 
I have a pair of kg4.2 that i use for movies and such. They don't really need a center, but it does add to the imaging quite a bit. I tried a dozen centers before stumbling into exactly what Gordon talks of. An orphan heresy showed up and the search was over. Granted, it is a heresy, and no slouch, but nothing else was able to rise up to meet the kg4.2s. The only thing I'd put energy swapping it for would be another kg4.2 or 5.2.

Center channels are so much of your experience, yet they're a compromise in so many cases. We used to have massive center stacks and nothing more. Now we try to push them aside and wonder why it doesn't hit the same.

Ymmv.
 
loudnoises said:
Center channels are so much of your experience, yet they're a compromise in so many cases. We used to have massive center stacks and nothing more. Now we try to push them aside and wonder why it doesn't hit the same.

Ymmv.
Click to expand...

Abso-freaking-lutely correct. If intelligibility and dynamic slam are the goal, a competent center- comparable to the performance of the L and R- is essential.

Regards,
Gordon.
 
I've been running a ghost center on my home theater with Hersey IV's as the mains... really liked it for voices and such but last weekend I put the center channel back in the mix (some old Klipsch center I've had for a decade) and it just makes everything work better together. I wish on a star I could fit a Hersey as the center, but unless I stick it in the fireplace it's not going to happen.

If you find a good one that voices well with your Forte's I'll probably take a look at it also, so keep us updated please. :)
 
Well, that sucks. I suppose I'll A-B compare using the KV1 with just using the Forte's without a center and see which is better.
 
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