Klipsch Forte IV Review - Getting Horny in a Small Room! 

I didn't cover amplification in the video - and actually they aren't that fussy which is great! You can drive them with anything! So whether it's a gooey warm tube, a nice bit of class A or hammeringly powerful class D - it's all good. Season to taste as they say! 🙂

Another great review! Appreciate that there is a channel dedicated to getting great sound in a small room - I have a similar set up and always wondered about the Klipsch Heritage line. Love the comparisons to other speakers like the Cornwall and the Dynaudio Heritage Special... helps keep everything in perspective.

Great speakers, they go well with solid state and tube amps/receivers!

May I add? Just discovered you presentation on the Forte' 4's and was happy to hear your honesty and how they did not work in your space. I have these speakers in the distressed Oak and lambs wool grills. My space is 24 x18' and I tried them at Klipsch's recommended distance from the front wall and they simply did NOT make much bass at all. I set up a sine wave generator to my reference frequency and a DB meter at my listening spot 20' feet back. As I pulled the speakers into the room, the bass began to increase! By the time a got to just over 3' the low end response on the DB had substantially peaked ! These speakers can play quite low when in a large listening room. My test signal was set to 27 Hz., a bit below their rating but even so, still filling the room. They are set at 12' apart with NO toe in. Very large stereo image and sound stage can be had with this spacing without toe in. I listen to mostly orchestral recordings, but prog rock, electronic ambient to string quartet are also enjoyed. I find the Forte' is well rounded enough to play most anything you through at them. My amplifier is the Willsenton R8 in 'triode' mode. The Forte's are sitting right along side the Martin Logan Classic 9's from the MasterPiece series and I really enjoy the differences between an 'old school' design and an 'exotic' 😊. I wrote Roy Delgado about the possibility of 'oiling' the rough finish on these speakers, and he wrote back saying they have a lacquer finish on them and discouraged me from putting anything on them. There you have it. Thanks again for your thoughts on a really great Heritage speaker!

Great review! You are a very brave man to try such large speakers in a small room. Its quite easy to overload my room with large speakers. I usually do stand mounts and subs for this reason. I’ve recently been trying panel speakers, magnepans to be specific. They work very well in my small room.

Thanks the video, I have a pair of Quartets from 1992 iirc and they are close to endgame in my room second only to my heavily modified Tannoy Berkeleys with HPD15

I have the Heresy iv ( among others) and I’m enjoying it very much. Seems nearly everything I listen too I hear something new in the song. They won’t leave, I’ll die with these.

I'm very glad to have found this channel and this review. I have been going back and forth between the Heresy IV and the Forte IV. My listening area is 13' x 6'. The speakers would go along the 13' wall. I was afraid the Fortes might overwhelm my space. I can get some used Fortes for about the same price as new Heresys. This will be my last speaker upgrade, so I want to make sure to make the right choice. I currently have Golden Ear Triton 7s.

Love your channel. I actually found it when I was researching gear (particularly speakers) for my own small dedicated room. For reference, my room is 14’ X 12.5’ so pretty small. I ended up buying Klipsch Cornwall IVs. I really wanted La Scalas but a little (okay a lot) more $ than I could reasonably afford. I love horns, even in a large room, but was drawn to them for the small room application because, as you pointed out to a couple of the snarky commenters here, they are very directional, thereby minimizing sidewall reflections. I considered the Forte IV due to their smaller footprint but knowing that I’d be placing my speakers on the “long” wall, I knew I wouldn’t have the space to pull them far enough away to make space for the rear passive radiator. The front ports in the CW IV just seemed a better fit. It looks like you had the Fortes on the short wall giving you more space to pull them away a bit, but sounds like it wasn’t quite enough.

I purchased the Forte IV's after listening to them, and the Cornwall IV's in a dealers sound room. When I set them up in my home, I must admit, I was somewhat disappointed in the sound. It was definitely different than what I heard in the listening room at the marketers. I now attribute it to the fact that the new speakers in comparison to the ones in the listening room, have not been broken in yet. As the hours started to build up on my new speakers the sound began to change as it did also change with the positioning of the speakers. Forte IV's are now developing more of a bass sound than they had originally. I had been thinking about getting a subwoofer due to the lack of bass response, but this lack of bass is rapidly changing as the sound of these speakers are evolving. Overall, I am very pleased with the purchase, and I'm looking forward to many years of service from them. They are high-quality speakers and the Walnut veneer finish of the cabinets is beautiful. You can tell that quality control is important to Klipsch. I bi-wired my speakers and they are driven by a Yamaha A-S3200 integrated amplifier. My listening room is 14x16 feet with 8 foot ceilings.

Would really like it if you could continue your edifier review saga with the new s1000w. It now has wifi (works with an app and actually as a built in streamer) and it seems tthe sound has been tweaked and refined. Seems like the ultimate VFM! I bet you can't find a better passive option now! 😀

Forte are more room friendly but Cornwall IVs is where tbe music journey begins!

Imaging and audiophile comments are indeed a surprise, the Cornwalls definitely don’t image. The Forte samples you have are handsome (in a retro way as you pointed out). The Cornwalls were superb with tube amps, quite sensitive to amplification. I have always wondered if the Fortes would be good cost effective speakers for 300B amps.

That Leben is stunning

Thanks mate. I’ve thought of trying some Forte IVs, however, like for you, I don’t think they’d be a good match for my bedroom size listening room.

I own these speakers too!

Thank you...

Is that dynaudio heritage in the background?

I have a pair of Forte IVs, they are the most bright speakers I have ever owned. I have tried 5 different amps my current amp is a tube, they sound bright, not musical like listening to a am radio…I have a pair of fortes I bought in 1985 that are not like the forte IVs..they sound great…

My room is 7ft8 x 11ft currently using vintage linn Kan against the wall, anything I could use with more bass that won’t boom?

Does the Forte IV have any internal bracing? @1:03

how big is your room?

They were too bright for me. Forte 3’s better in my opinion.

Dimensions of your small room?

You know, I have a 15' x 21' room and I swear I thought it was small. I mean it. Look, your room is for a midget. Was this a hall closet? A broom closet? It's not small, it's tiny! LOL!. I'm just joking around. Seriously, I just found your channel and I enjoyed this video.

😅😅😅joking? 7000€ for this old stuff. Crossover are ugly and the mid horn is too small. Don't drink and hear.😅

In other words this gentleman would like to crack concrete the New foundations from their settlement because that's what the 44 is the heresy fours and the monster Cornwell for is will do

I swear to God the sound of breaking in speakers is absolutely ridiculous.. just listen to the damn things in time if you believe in break and they will break into the meantime enjoy what you listen to and spend a lot of money and your speakers and don't worry about break-in timeline clips themselves does not recommend breaking time to make your speakers sound the way they should they found the way they shouldn't do right out of the box.. so let's see if everybody gets it and stops BSN about so-called time breaking with speakers it's all just crap😊😊😊😊