[KLH 12's - another hole in my KLH collection filled . .]

On 1/2/2008 at 0:57 PM, JKent said:

Hi Vern

Thank you for the compliments and your comments.

Yes--I had not noticed the wafers on the switches, but there is a difference between my all-npe xover and the mylar/npe one I just finished.

Also did not notice the penciled SN on the plywood, but now that you mentioned it, the xovers that have the "brown wafer" switches are marked in pencil "#240" and "#263." I did not see numbers on the "white wafer switch" plywood. There was a date, hard to read (Sept something) and I see I covered it with Goop to glue down the caps

Interesting note on CR's take on the Twelves vs AR3a's. I don't think the Twelves get the respect they deserve! They are essentially identical to the well-

regarded Fives, but with bigger cabinets so they go deeper. That asset is also a liability.

I bought mine for $100 with local pickup, and that included a KLH Eighteen tuner and an old speaker selector switch! Only problems with the Twelves were:

Missing 3 knobs, terrible sound because of bad caps, a few minor nicks and scratches, tired-looking grille cloth.

They now sound great with the new caps. I'm in the process of refinishing the cabinets and patching the veneer in a couple of places. Not sure what to do about the grille cloth. I have the metal logos but have not reinstalled them yet.

Your comments about the paucity of KLHs in your neck of the woods is interesting. Of course, in New England they were very common. I notice a lot of Dynaco speakers on ebay come from Canada. Guess Dynaco did a better jo of marketing up North!

Yes--the speakers are sometimes sold without the crossovers. Hard to imagine, unless buyers are opting for external electronic crossovers. Expensive, but

probably nice. As I mentioned, I plan to sell one pair of crossovers (don't need two!) so I hope I can recoup the cost of the caps and knobs. Originally I had bought some nice inexpensive retro-style knobs in Rat Shack (shown in one of my previous posts), since 3 of the originals were missing. But the second pair had (only) 3 original knobs, so now I have one complete set!

Could have used that schematic! Maybe then I would have bought the right number (and value) of caps!

Here's a photo of one Twelve. Not finished yet. The xover was moved for the photo but is normally attached to the back with Velcro. More work to do on the finish. New cloth needed. Reinstall logos. Too bad these are in the hall OUTSIDE my rec room!

Kent

They look great! The cloth is in pretty good condition, personally, I'd leave it as is. The veneer looks fantastic too!

[1967 KLH model 5 refurbish (1967?)]

Hey Geoff!

You're doing a great job with these and great documentation! You will be quite impressed at how good these sound when you're done. 

The black liner grill cloth was used so you would not be able to see the drivers through the linen fabric, and the cloth shielding  the woofer basket is the same as the Six's and Twenty Threes. I prefer this over the thin tissue type paper used in AR's, which is always shredding and falling apart when I open up a pair.

Looking forward to your listening impressions. If you have a space where you can spread them out, do it and be prepared to stage like sound!

Glenn

[KLH various model rankings.....]

Hey Geoff,

So not too bad. I think in the end after a recap, some work on the cabs, woofer and mids surrounds resealed, they will be very nice.

Have fun!

Glenn

[KLH various model rankings.....]

OK Glenn, done. Picking these up on Thursday. 150

Hey Geoff!

Good deal for sure. Post pics, I'd love to see what you got!

Glenn

[KLH various model rankings.....]

It's funny this thread should crop back up. I have recently been toying with getting a set of 5s that are selling locally (50 miles North) for $160. Seems like a reasonable price and they look pretty good. My house project has had me totally consumed and I have a number of other sets waiting for rehab so I am not that motivated.

hmmm....

I paid the same for mine, and already recapped! Well worth the 160.00. Grab them,get to them when you can.

I forgot to mention, I also restored a set of Seventeens, which also sound great, more of a comparison to the AX4a's. My daughter has them now.

Glenn

[KLH various model rankings.....]

Peters thread on AK is a great one. There's very little info on these, his documentation, and restoration work was outstanding.

Geoff, I've had 4 pairs of KLH's, still have three. The Five, Six, and Twenty Three.

Of these, which are the most easily found, I rank them in this order, Five, Twenty Three, Six.

The Fives are outstanding, period. They give my AR3's a real run for the money, and a performance bargain, though prices are creeping up.

The Twenty Threes are Sixs on steroids, the cabs are bigger and they share the woofer with the Five which can handle a lot more power than the Sixs.

Ahh, the Sixs. Absolutely love them. Mine are 1963 models, with the glued woofers, and one glued tweeter. The other tweeter is screw mounted. This is the year the screw mounted tweeter was phased in. I believe 1965 the screw mount woofers came. My other pair were 1972's, end of the production run with vinyl clad cabs. Both Sixs sounded virtually identicle, except, the 1963's go a tad deeper due to the epoxy mounted woofers longer excursion. I have them hooked up to my Scott LK-72, and it's a sublime mating.

Hopes this helps you a bit, but any of these I'm sure you would be very happy with.

Glenn