JKent

Long time member Robert A. Arthur, aka ra.ra passed away in April, 2020. Members of this forum will miss his contributions and insights. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/robert-arthur-obituary?id=2255999

This works very well. Use it to replace both woofer gaskets since the one that's still there is probably flattened: https://www.parts-express.com/Speaker-Gasketing-Tape-1-8-x-1-2-x-50-ft.-Roll-260-542 "Bypass caps" are controversial. Some say it improves the sound, some say it's snake oil. Small value caps are cheap so if you want to try it couldn't hurt but I think most of us here are skeptical. You can Google "Bypass capacitors in crossover" or "bypass capacitors in speakers" if you want to learn about them. Here's a good explanation: https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2016/01/advanced-speaker-crossover-mods.html Dunno about the switches.

Post a picture. Resize to about 100KB if you can. Anything on the back? My guess is they are KLH in name only but we'll see.

Martin, Looks like you can do what I wish I had done: A side-by-side comparison of the 3a and the KLH Five. So what are your impressions? btw, I didn't fully appreciate the Fives until I resealed the surrounds with Roy's special goo. Have you tried it? Kent

Here's how: http://www.antiquerestorers.com/Articles/SAL/smothoil.htm

Welcome Andrea Post some pictures in the For Sale section. It's free. Resize them to about 100KB or so if possible. Also let people know where you are. Kent

Those look great! No surprise after seeing your other woodworking. Here's a question for some other members: Those mids don't look original. The 11s I refurbished had AR-3a style mids, as did the 11Bs. In fact, my AR-3a's have AR-11 mids, courtesy of Roy. Mark's look like the mids in my AR-91s. Or maybe more accurately, the AR-58s (I've only seen pictures). I think they're essentially similar. After all, the 11 and the 58s were essentially modern 3a's but did AR ever put those mids in the 11s?

What he said. Resize your pics to about 100KB or so if you can.

Best to do as Gene said--ask Pio and Sony. I only know about my Oinkyo.

What kind of receiver? I have an onkyo and I did just what Gene suggested--contacted the manufacturer and they said it's fine with 4 ohm speakers. I had planned to add a separate power amp but as long as Onkyo said it was OK I just left things as-is.

122 will be fine

Hot glue may damage new caps. Either use something like E6000 or screw cable tie anchors to the cabinet. Marine grade (tinned) 18AWG is good. Most of us try to keep the color coding. I never recapped a 10-Pi but you may not need to add any wire.

Owner's manual or service manual? I understand the amps were problematic. There are schematics and service bulletins here: http://fisherdoctor.com/advents.html Good luck

ar_pro, sounds like Mark considered all that and designed things accordingly. The corners may have been the only or best place for the speakers. Maybe I'm over-sensitive because I had an audiophile offer unsolicited advice on how I should rearrange my speakers. There are lots of considerations including room size, space, other stuff in the room and the all-important WAF.

Nice work Mark! No--no need to worry about the wood cradles. The caps don't heat up. My comment was about using hot melt glue, which may be harmful to the caps. I'm not sure I understand the 2nd question. To solder the caps in parallel you would twist the leads together at both ends. One end of the 22 twisted to one end of the 100 and the other end of the 22 twisted together with the other end of the 100. Picture below shows 2 caps in parallel. Kent

Dang! I "had" a pair in wood veneer but sold them, not realizing how rare they were. I always wondered about the veneer. It obviously wasn't walnut but I didn't know what it was. Might have been fun to strip the stain off.....

Well I have a real bias in favor of the Model Eight. I also have a Model One and several KLH Model Twenty-Ones. Thing is, FM reception is lousy here in the Appalachian Mountains of NJ so any radio listening is done over the interweb. Disclaimers aside, I think a properly working Eight is excellent but a Model Twenty-One may challenge it. Especially the less-popular 21/II. The Tiv is OK but not my first choice.

The 2nd xo's caps weren't nearly as bad. Mostly off by 20-25% although one 2x4uF measured 0.18 and 0.13, and the 50uFs both measured in the 70s. I've mentioned this many times--I always replace the 5w resistors in these crossovers with 10w. Second photo below shows a resistor I found in a Model Twelve years ago. There are 7 resistors per box and at two bits each (Erse) it's cheap insurance: 2 15ohm, 2 10 ohm, 2 6ohm and 1 5ohm per contour box. Caps used this time were mostly from Erse: 2 50uF NPEs per box. The rest are all mylar: one 16uF mylar, three 4uF and one 3uF (a TI that I happened to have on hand). Tested the finished boxes with a full-range driver to make sure everything worked and they're both now loud & clear, ready to return to the owner.

Sadly, our friend Carl passed away. The information on this thread should be helpful. Post any specific questions you may have. Kent

I'm kind of a Model Eight nut, and over the years I've bought and restored about 100 of them. I don't do the real sophisticated electronics--for that I take them to Bristol Electronics. My work consists of refinishing the cabinets, replacing the grille cloth if needed, replacing all of the capacitors and vacuum tubes. The Eight was a true high fidelity radio, with a separate acoustic suspension speaker. Originally they used twin 3" drivers left over from a previous project. Back in 1959 the audio consultants Bolt, Beranek & Newman had a project to equip the Senate chambers with high quality individual speakers for each Senator. So BB&N went to KLH and Kloss designed a speaker but the project fell through, so the speaker ended up in the Model 8 radio in 1960. Henry was a frugal guy and wasn't going to let excellent drivers go to waste but apparently when they ran out of those Kloss switched to a single 4" driver, the ubiquitous "twelve point five" driver that was used in so many KLH speakers. I'm getting to the end of my inventory and running short on speakers so I built this reproduction that might be called a "restomod". I've seen some pretty cool restomod cars, like a 1960 corvette that looks original but underneath it has 4-wheel independent suspension, disc brakes, a honkin' big crate engine . . . but I digress. So here's the restomod. A few years back my brother-in-law made a new solid walnut cabinet for the electronics. Recently I found a cabinet maker who built about 6 speaker cabinets for me. The faceplate is original and the radio itself is a fully restored original. The speaker drivers are dual 3" Tang Band W3s. I do have some 12.5 drivers but wanted to try something new. Grille is new 10-count Irish Linen. Grille badge and plate on the back of the speaker are reproductions. The added bonus is an AUX input that allows one to play MP3s, CDs, etc. through the Model Eight's tube amp. I had built some of these as an external box, similar to the outboard Phono/Tape box KLH made back in the day. The built-in one can be seen in the upper left corner on the back. There's a 1/8" TRS jack, a 2-way switch and a TRS cable that plugs into the "Multiplex" jack on the back of the Model Eight. There's no need to unplug that cable--the switch selects the internal tuner or the external source. My circuitry consists of some resistors and a capacitor to sum the Left and Right signal from the external source and feed a mono signal to the amp. I sold the radio to a fellow KLH enthusiast who wrote "Wow! That’s all I can say. This radio is not only a dream, it’s probably the only radio I’ve ever had with no low-level noise in the background of our local classical station. It beats a 1956 Telefunken Opus I have that has six speakers and is the size of a garage." I love when that happens 😃

I've never done anything as big as a 3 in lacquer but have had really excellent results with Minwax rattle cans lacquering my KLH Model Eight radios https://www.amazon.com/Minwax-15200-Brushing-Lacquer-12-25-Ounce/dp/B0002YOPOG/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=minwax+lacquer+gloss&qid=1627995593&sr=8-2 The Gloss has no flatting agents, which tend to dull the appearance. I apply 6 or more coats outdoors, about 15 - 30 minutes apart then wait a couple of days and buff them a little with white ScotchBrite to soften the appearance. I'm certainly no expert at this but I've found the Minwax to be the best. Tried Rustoleum brand spray lacquer and it was terrible. I forget the term that applies but lacquer melts each previous coat as it goes on, leveling it and making a good bond. Kent

I'm going to hijack this thread for my latest KLH Model Twelve project. A fellow CSP member picked up a very nice pair and will be doing the cosmetic work himself but he sent me the contour boxes to rebuild. I'll let him chime in if he chooses to. He reported that one box was dead in the midrange. I've ordered new capacitors and resistors and am waiting for delivery but decided to tear apart the dead crossover while waiting. I tested the woofer, mid and tweeter outputs by connecting a full-range driver to the woofer and mid outputs and a tweeter to the tweet and found that the woofer output was OK but the mid and tweet were very weak. Pulled all the caps. Some were doubles but wired in parallel. I was amazed this crossover worked at all, given the readings. I even replaced the battery in my Capacitance meter and checked it on a new capacitor. So here are the readings: Marked Reading 3 MFD 0.02 2x2 MFD .001 .001 2x4 MF .002 .002 2x4 MFD .001 .002 2x4 MFD 1.02 0.62 50 MFD 2.9 50 MFD 4.4

You could make your own, or buy this 50' cable and cut it in half https://www.parts-express.com/RCA-Patch-Cable-50-ft.-Nickel-Plated-240-044 It's very likely your old capacitors are off, so another option would be to open up the speakers and replace the capacitors, and while you're in there install some 5-way binding posts to replace the RCA jacks. That's what I did with similar Model Twenty speakers. The RCA jack should then be covered to prevent air leaks. Kent

I’ve had excellent results with Minwax gloss lacquer in a rattle can. Dries in minutes. Recoat in 10-15 mins. Very forgiving. On my KLH radios I either clean with lacquer thinner or sand., then spray 4-6 coats. After a couple of days a light buff with white ScotchBrite gives a softer finish.

Beautiful work! Henry woulda been proud.