Klipsch Forte ii too bright, or is it my room ?


Help? Certain music makes my ears hurt from my bright sounding Klipsh Forte ii's (Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus), Or is it my room full of glass and tile? Or am I listening too loud (80 db), or my 1970's Pioneer receiver? I just ordered some dynamat to put on the rear of the horns. Some music is good though. I have often though about getting another pair of speakers so I can switch back and forth or run all four depending on the music. Any advise?
128x128peterjc
I like vintage audio. See my pics. 

I have Klipsch Chorus IIs, which are similar to yours. I found that a Pioneer SX-1050 was one of the worst matches, and it had been completely restored.  I sold it.  Too bright, and listening fatigue after < 30 minutes.

Sansui (60/70's) is an incredible match, as is quicksilver tube gear.  I like Marantz, but prefer Sansui.  With regards to gear made this decade, I tried Cambridge audio and thought it too was a poor match. Pass Labs is incredible (I built the 8WPC Amp Camp Amp, which is more than enough for your 80db).  As far as restorations, I'm in the boat of replacing all electrolytics, known noisy or problematic transistors/diodes and updated small electrolytics with film caps.  But others don't like to change anything that isn't broke.  When it comes to 45-50 year old E-caps....those folks aren't getting all the highs.   
Actually, without the mods, while I might not have been in hate group, call me lukewarm. Even in stock form I could hear the good and potential for better, even great. I'm sure being long time modder allowed me to hear potential. While my mods are not possible for many, there are some more simple mods that are effective in taming brightness. Yes, horn speakers are susceptible to tonal/timbre anomalies, but so are a lot of speakers.

I'd never advocate giving up on Klipsch Heritage, providing one is willing to work a bit. I also realize its not everyone's cup of tea, no harm, no foul.
Klipsch Forte’s and Heresy’s sound great if you’ve lost most of your HF hearing, otherwise they’re almost universally panned by serious reviewers. 

This isn’t even opinion, I don’t think Klipsch has ever marketed them as accurate.
I should mention that I also updated the entire crossovers -> Crites boards in 2017.  Was a substantial improvement and heartily recommend. I also replaced the diaphragms in the squawkers, but that might not be the route you should go until you balance out the room and gear.

I also heartily agree with others that room treatments will go far and should be considered regardless of gear changes.  

With regards to @wilderness comment to put the speakers close to wall, my experience would contraindicate that.  The forte IIs have a passive radiator in the back that tends to muffle the hell out of bass if placed too close to the wall and corners. I am usually about 2-3 feet into room. 


OP OK, The smart advice here is to treat the room. Know that all rooms need treatment. It’s a fact and I’ll say it again: all rooms need treatment, even the Royal Albert Hall, London had to have massive diffusers installed to get rid of the echo.

It was said that at RAH you could hear any concert twice :-)

The suggestion to add curtains and rugs will help a little but they are only narrow band absorbers and serve to unbalance the sound. What is needed is broad-band absorption and bass traps. You mention a mortgage so consider some easy and inexpensive DIY.

This will be cheaper than buying new stuff to try out. The problem is the sound is taking too long to decay. No EQ or similar device can reduce the echo. EQ can’t do anything to help overlong decay but can tweak a good room to compensate for electronics or speaker performance. I have never needed to resort to this band-aid.

I strongly urge you to look into room treatment regardless of choice of speaker. Like EQ, no speaker can control it’s own decay and this will plague any speaker in your room. So do not change your speaker or amp yet. Dial in the room first

I can go on at length explaining how to measure (simple) your room’s performance for the cost of a microphone for less than $100 but if this is not your thing then I will not waste our time. I assure you that if you could magically clap your hands and suddenly hear your existing system in your room with correct treatment you would be stunned at the results. It really is a big deal.

The advice to improve the crossover and damp the horns is solid but only after the room is sorted out. Any XO upgrade will be lost in the confusion of sound bouncing uncontrolled around your room, obscuring detail with bass nodes causing huge peaks and nulls. Nulls? caused by nodes cancelling which of course can’t be brought back with EQ

What you can try is a trick I sometimes use for piercing highs and that is to place vertically a 4" sponge paint roller obtainable from hardware outlets in the mouth of the horn/s. What this does is slightly attenuate and diffuse the horn output. I can offer lots of advice on how to improve the low cost XO. but you guessed it: Room First.