Quote Originally Posted by topspeed
Are you in the process of building or just guessing that your next house is going to have a 600s.f.(!) living/HT room? That's big...as in twice as big as a normal living room. If you're building with a dedicated HT room, I can understand the size and if so you're going to need at least a 7.1 system in my guesstimation.

The Klipch Forte's are terrific speakers and would actually be great for a huge room like that. They throw an impressively large soundstage and they are very efficient. Unfortunately as Woochifer noted, finding a matching center is going to a daunting task indeed. For a room that size I'd lean towards the Klipsch's, and I'm a B&W owner. The Forte's were made during Klipsch golden era with the Klipschorns, Forte II, Cornwall, LaScala, Heresy, etc.. Man those speakers were so over the top you had to love 'em! Unfortunately, todays products just don't do it for me but if I had a 600sf listening room, I'd be very tempted to find a pair of Klipschorns!

As far buying used speaks, I personally don't have a problem with it, especially as you get into the higher end. Most audiophiles take meticulous care of their toys...kinda like gearheads and their cars. Foam rolls are definitely a concern but can also be replaced. Just use good judgement and common sense when researching any used equipment. Audiogon.com is populated with audiophiles so I'd feel a little safer purchasing from there versus e-bay. Still Caveat Emptor and all.
I've owned a lot of Klipsch over the years. I tend to love their sound, hate their looks. Just happens that way. Most of my experience with B&W came about as a result of dealing with them in recording studios. A lot of work with the 801 matrix and Nautius 805's and up. I find your characterizations of them to be essentially my own. For listening I'd do the Klipsch for mixing the B&W's, they force you to mix a little "hot" which is sometimes a good thing.

Da Worfster