Three generations of 17's?

[Guest Mike Gibson]

I have a pair of the early model with the badge that screws into the front of the cabinet and another pair with the thinner glue on badges and a third pair with ugly grill cloth and cheezy vinyl covering on the cabinets. Is the vinyl the last hurrah of this model? They all sound the same but the later ones sure leave a lot to be desired in the appeal department.

[Guest ddavejb]

Yeah, those speakers did change over the years that they were made. Ways to save money? The pair I have must have come out rather late in the game too. They still have the nice walnut cabinets and the familiar tweeters, but the woofers and grille cloth look different, and the name plates are the later style. The back plates still say Cambridge on them though. No serial #'s. Maybe KLH was transitioning then? They've always been like that, since I bought them from the original owner back in the seventies and I remember loving how they sounded the day he bought them and played them for me. They still sound awesome. Like you, I feel they really went down hill with the vinyl cabinets. I've also seen some of the vinyl ones with a tiny tweeter covered with a piece of fiberglass fluff and a wire screen stapled over that.

One of my 17's is pictured in the members pic area under KLH Model 17.

Over all though, aren't they a great sounding speaker? I think so. Dave

[Andy]

As I mentioned in my model 56 post, KLH realy lost it in the 70s as far as cabinet construction, then they started out sourcing drivers...the public simply gave up on KLH ! If one wants to see the way a speaker cabinet should be built, find a pair of KLH's from the 1957-59 era (models 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7).... 3/4 inch 15-ply marine plywood, beautiful cabinets! Many people don't know that Henry Kloss was a skilled wood worker and had the ability to make home furniture from raw materials and hand tools. When he started KLH, he felt that fine cabinet construction was as important as the drivers you put in them.

I think KLH could have easily maintained 10% of the mid level speaker market from the 70s through today if they had kept the quality in their speakers instead of going of in all kinds of directions. Their reputation from the 1960s was that they made some of the best all around speakers in the industry. A sad state of affairs when you look at the little black plastic speaker boxes of today with the KLH label attached!

Final comment on the model 17......introduced in 1965 for $69. Performed almost as well as the model 6, just slightly less bass response. It really was better then any other speaker priced under $100.

[Guest Mike Gibson]

When I got back into audio (as far as reading & buying a bit) I noticed that McIntosh is the only fairly large company that survived the 80's. It seems a shame that most companies went after the quick mass market buck. I think if they would have stuck together a bit longer the mass market would have had to come to them.

[Guest bebop]

No way would/does the American pulic ever respond to quality-glitz

and marketing will always prevail.