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KLH 6 (repair in NJ/NYC)


Guest mdinonno

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Guest mdinonno

Hello everyone,

After perusing this forum this afternoon, just after i scrounged a decent ( ?) pair of old KLH Model Six speakers out of the dumpster, I figured the set i have is an old/early version.

The cabinet is a little stained and chipped but repairable. The clothe is very good.

I haven't tested them yet. I only have a c.1960 Telefunken hi-Fi ,tube amplifier/receiver. There are six speakers in this huge console.

Question : is there a safe way to attach the KLH speakers somewhere along the wiring / What's the best way to test with this Hi-Fi?

Until i get my hands on a more modern amp, I really have no way of hearing these speakers. Should i figure out what condition they are in and they require repair, where in the NJ/NYC area do i get them serviced??? I realize they are completely sealed and there is no way to remove the front without cutting the clothe.

Thanks for any guidance,

mike

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>Hello everyone,

>

>After perusing this forum this afternoon, just after i

>scrounged a decent ( ?) pair of old KLH Model Six speakers

>out of the dumpster, I figured the set i have is an old/early

>version.

>The cabinet is a little stained and chipped but repairable.

>The clothe is very good.

>

>I haven't tested them yet. I only have a c.1960 Telefunken

>hi-Fi ,tube amplifier/receiver. There are six speakers in this

>huge console.

>Question : is there a safe way to attach the KLH speakers

>somewhere along the wiring / What's the best way to test with

>this Hi-Fi?

>

>Until i get my hands on a more modern amp, I really have no

>way of hearing these speakers. Should i figure out what

>condition they are in and they require repair, where in the

>NJ/NYC area do i get them serviced??? I realize they are

>completely sealed and there is no way to remove the front

>without cutting the clothe.

>

>Thanks for any guidance,

> mike

Hi Mike;

Don't cut the grill cloth, they are not available as a replacement!

I am getting sick of hearing about the dumpster divers speakers, a pair out by the curb for the garbage, found at the dump and $20.00 at a thrift store. lol

I have never been so lucky, I think I'll move to the USA now.

If your receiver has a pair or single speaker lead outs try connecting only a single speaker cabinet first.

With the low power of that receiver I wouldn't turn it up very loud.

Even if one or more of the speaker drivers should be DOA, replacements are generally available on ebay.

A worst case scenario is, all the drivers are DOA, but the enclosure and crossovers still have a monetary value.

If and only if this is the case, an opinion on what to do will be forthcoming from the members.

Hopefully your speakers all work and just close your eyes at this time to the conditon of the cabinets.

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Very likely you will need to remove the speakers in order to either replace them or remove the old acoustical material. If the grill cloth is still in good shape then look for staples holding the grill to the cabinet. You might be able to pry these loose and then gain access to the speakers, which can then be unbolted and removed.

Unless you are set on retaining the original appearance you can obtain new grill cloth and give the speakers a whole new appearance. It sounds like the cabinet may need to be refinished which would be hard to do without removing the grill.

Remember that with today's higher end speakers (those in real wood veneer cabinets) a good portion of the cost is tied up in the cabinet. With some work you can wind up with some great performing and also good looking speakers at a fraction of a comparable new set would cost.

Good luck with your restoration.

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If you truely have an early pair like I do, restorative repair may be difficult or impossible. Mine were repaired several times at the factory when KLH was KLH many many years ago. Mr. Kloss had a weird idea for manufacturing. In early production units, the woofers were epoxy cast into the front baffleboard. There are photos of the back side showing this clearly on this site. In early units, neither the woofer nor the baffleboard are removable. Neither is the grill cloth. In one repair, KLH somehow inserted a tool which they used to pry the baffleboard out. The marks are still in evidence. In another, they removed the woofer cone, repaired the crossover network working through the woofer basket, and then reconed the woofer. In later production units, Kloss came into the modern world and assembled his speaker with more conventional hardware. If the tweeter doesn't work, it may be hard to find a replacement. The good news is that many of them were produced and used in other KLH speakers like KLH models 17, 5, and 12. They can be scavanged from the remains of these models or are sometimes available separately on e-bay. The schematic for the crossover network is also available on this site. Given the age of even the newest KLH model 6 (34 years) it is likely that the woofer surround will have to be resealed. It is cloth, not foam and should not have rotted. I have not figured out how to do this without sacrificing the grill cloth. All suggestions will be appreciated. (Applicaton using a eye dropper or syringe through holes in the grillcloth maybe?) In recent years, tweeters with frequency responses approaching that of the KLH model 6 tweeter have become available. Check Morrel and Vifa. Until these newer models, no comparable single high quality tweeter came close to being able to respond down to about 1 KHz. As a last step before they go back to the dumpster, if you must get inside the box, another possibility is to remove the back near the perimeter using a reciprocating saw. Whatever you do, the final repaired unit must be air tight. If you refinish the enclosure, be sure to tape plastic over the front to prevent sawdust or any other material from getting near the cones. Good luck.

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>If you truely have an early pair like I do, restorative

>repair may be difficult or impossible. Mine were repaired

>several times at the factory when KLH was KLH many many years

Mr. Kloss had a weird idea for manufacturing. In early

>production units, the woofers were epoxy cast into the front

>baffleboard.

I raised this point a few write-ups ago.

No comments came forward until now.

I will guess now that Henry believed that this epoxy mounting method would unify and strenghthen the bass with its enclosure.

It would be nice if Henry left a journal, yet to be published.

I believe that a man with his intelligence, would not have just woke up one day, and decided just to mount the woofers and tweeters differently, from all other manufuacturers.

He already had first hand experience with a production line, at least at AR.

He must have, early on, noticed the servicing access difficulties.

He also had partners in KLH, who must have seen what was going on.

You know Henry was ahead of his time with the projection videobeam tv he invented and was written up in The Audio Amateur magazine.

>clearly on this site. In early units, neither the woofer nor

>the baffleboard are removable. Neither is the grill cloth.

>In one repair, KLH somehow inserted a tool which they used to

>pry the baffleboard out. The marks are still in evidence. In

>another, they removed the woofer cone, repaired the crossover

>network working through the woofer basket, and then reconed

>the woofer. In later production units, Kloss came into the

>modern world and assembled his speaker with more conventional

>hardware. If the tweeter doesn't work, it may be hard to find

>a replacement. The good news is that many of them were

>produced and used in other KLH speakers like KLH models 17, 5,

>and 12. They can be scavanged from the remains of these

>models or are sometimes available separately on e-bay. The

>schematic for the crossover network is also available on this

>site. Given the age of even the newest KLH model 6 (34 years)

>it is likely that the woofer surround will have to be

>resealed. It is cloth, not foam and should not have rotted.

>I have not figured out how to do this without sacrificing the

>grill cloth. All suggestions will be appreciated.

>(Applicaton using a eye dropper or syringe through holes in

>the grillcloth maybe?) In recent years, tweeters with

>frequency responses approaching that of the KLH model 6

>tweeter have become available. Check Morrel and Vifa. Until

>these newer models, no comparable single high quality tweeter

>came close to being able to respond down to about 1 KHz. As a

>last step before they go back to the dumpster, if you must get

>inside the box, another possibility is to remove the back near

>the perimeter using a reciprocating saw. Whatever you do, the

>final repaired unit must be air tight. If you refinish the

>enclosure, be sure to tape plastic over the front to prevent

>sawdust or any other material from getting near the cones.

>Good luck.

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We've had this discussion in the past and from what I could tell, this method was a cost cutting idea. He patented it and offered it to industry but there were no takers. Although we admire the ingenuity of those who pioneered the speakers we discuss here, many of them contained ideas that were unfortunte and which could have been improved upon. The epoxy casting of these drivers into the baffleboard was one of them as anyone who's had to return one to the factory for what in any other speaker would have been a simple repair or now faces the prospect of having something which in practical terms is unrepairable can attest.

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