I have had my Forte's in storage for over three years, and just recently purchased a home and finally have room to set these up. My goal is to use them as part of a 5.1 system for a home theater system to watch movies. Here is what I have so far: a Pioneer 1014TX receiver, a pair of Klipsch ForteII speakers, and a pair of book shelf JBL speakers for the surround. I am willing to replace the JBL's if needed. Anybody have any recommendations for center channel speaker and replacement surrounds. I know the academy is the perfect match for the Forte's, but they are hard to come by. Thanks in advance.

 Well if space is not an issue another Forte II would fit the bill nicely. Others should chime in on recommendations as well.

Yes, space is not really an issue, but I was hoping to put in something a little smaller for the aesthetics. Any other suggestions?

 in the interm if the Pioneer offers a phantom mode for the center just go with that. until you get ready to move forward.  As well I wouldn't mix and match with reference series that whole lack ofTimbre matching thing would really stick out.

Yes it does have a phantom mode and that is what I am doing now since I do not have a center. It actually sounds pretty good like that, so I can imagine it will sound that much better with the center in place. I guess I will keep my eye out for an academy or maybe another forteII once I figure out if I can make the room for it and still keep the wife happy. Thanks for the advice

What I did when I was in the same position as you was another pair of F ll's, mostly because they cost about the same as an Academy !

Then another pair to make 6.1, sounds great. 

Before I added a second set Forte IIs to the rear I used a pair of KG 3.2 and also a pair of KG 2.5s.

For movies either of those worked great but for listening to music the Forte IIs are definitely an improvement

I tried a Forte II as a center but it was too big to work well with my HT/TV stand set up. I had a KV 2 first, then went with an Academy which I love, much better than the KV 2. I tried the Forte II next but went back to the Academy because it fits so well below my 52" TV. But for the price of an Academy I'd agree if you have room for a Forte II up front that would probably be the way to go. I think you'll find there are people running all Forte speakers in a 5.1 setup that are very happy with it. I'm thrilled with Forte IIs front and rear with an Academy myself only because of space issues. If I ever mount my TV to the wall I might go back to a Forte II at center.

Forte II are incredible speakers and I could certainly understand someone using them as a complete HT setup.

A KLF-C7 is a awesome center or a KV4 may voice match well enough with the Forte II.

I ran Forte II's as my mains for a while but currently  I have them as my surround channels and use LaScalas as my mains with a Heresy center.  The forte's are great, but if you are going to have to buy additional speakers anyway you may as well shoot for the sky and get some Heritage.  The Forte's blend extremely well with my LaScalas so you could probably mate them well with some cornwalls or Heresy's.

 

quartet and chorus II's also work well.

I have 5 forte II's and and two quartets and they sound great.   They have a very good full range sound for video and TV audio.