KLH 23 - The next step

[draftingmonkey]

OK,

So I broke down and traveled to San Diego and took a listen to. I keep hearing about how good stacked Advents sound so out of curiosity I had the guy stack the 23's. They sounded very nice as single pairs but stacked, even better. So I broke down and ended up bringing them home. Almost in perfect condition. This guy was the second owner and took very good care of them as did the original owner. The wife even commented about how nice they look and now I have to decide where and with which system I want to drive these speakers. I guess that is half the fun, finding the best room and system; and the other half is enjoying the music.

And the hunt goes on...

James

[Guest farzhan]

Good for you, I've read the accounts of many happy 23 owners on another forum, particularly stacked. One guy said he thought they were an upgraded 6. I'm waiting for a pair of 6's myself, they should arrive tuesday. Enjoy! And hello everybody, I'm a novice and probably will post only a little, thanks

[Guest ddavejb]

I think you made a good investment in those 23's too. My father has a pair he's owned since new around 1970. They look and sound fantastic. I have a great(later, non epoxied) pair of Model Sixes(along with a pair of Seventeens). I'm hard pressed to tell a difference in the sound between the Sixes and the 23's, but those 23 cabinets are pretty neat. Definitely fancier than the Model Six, which are still good looking speakers in my opinion.

[draftingmonkey]

Picked up a Marantz 1530 and a Sansui 4900Z today (plus some speakers: sansui SP-2000, Pioneer CS-66 and some brand named RTR Model 2 Series III). Anyway I was wondering if the Sansui with a rating of 200W would drive the 23's in a stacked setup. Or what kind of power would I need?

Thanks

James

[Guest farzhan]

Well again I am new to this stuff but from what I understand if you have both speakers hooked up to a receiver the load on the receiver becomes 4ohms which can be hard on vintage equipment. Best bet might be to get a nice preamp and a pair of power amps. I'm considering doing this with a tube preamp and a couple of vintage power amps. I've been told these can handle a decent amount of power but I've also been told the model six can be driven with 30wpc and I would expect this to be about the same. If your not going to push the speakers that hard (they are classics) than the sansui might do the trick, I am not familiar with that model.

[draftingmonkey]

Thanks for the input Farzhan, but since the Sansui has outputs for 2 pairs of speakers, it has a load of 16 ohms on the receiver. Thats what the schematic on the back of the receiver shows. I forgot to add that to my post.

But I am not quite certain how a 200W rating, also as stated on back of unit, breaks down to what the output to the speakers is; and if it is enough for the 23's.

If it isn't enough I have some other amp/pre setups I can use.

James

[ToastedAlmond]

Get slightly better amplification than old Sansui stuff. Additionally, don't expect much from those Pioneer speakers. However, they are perfect for that garage or outdoor music system.

[draftingmonkey]

Just picked up a Sansui 9090DB today and to test it out, hooked her up to the 23's. It was like a match made in heaven. Have been running them with a Pioneer SX-780 for a while trying out different combos around the house. But I have to say that the 9090DB really brought them to life and I was really able to hear for the first time what an absolutely great sounding speaker the 23 is (especially in a stack). The bass came alive and I really was impressed with how crisp they sounded (could actually hear words very clearly to some songs which had seemed muddled before). Don't have the knowledge to describe how they sounded but the guy who brought the 9090 to my place (a member from another forum) was sort of reluctant to part with it after he heard how it sounded on the 23's. He has a pair of 32's and now he wants to go home and check them out and I think he was impressed enough with the 23's that he'll start looking for a pair locally. As for me, I think I found my source to keep my 23' happy.

What a great Sunday this has turned out to be.

James

[Guest denmarkdrivers]

i know how you feel, some recivers/ amps just sound better with certain speakers. I've noticed that with most speakers. Try a HK 730 with your A25s, a very nice mix .

[Andy]

I recently swore off of KLH speakers weighing more then 20 pounds after injuring my back last year, but fate intervened.....a pretty nice pair of Model 23's were set out on the curb this morning for trash. I could not leave them, it's like finding a puppy in need of a home! I've owned many KLH speakers...6's, 20's,17's 24's etc. but I had never seen the 23 in person and was impressed with the unusual cabinet design and the weight......yes I took a deep breath and lifted them into my truck and my back survived. I'm impressed with the sound they put out. I'm pretty sure they sold for about $170. each back in 1968-72 (thats about $500. in todays money)putting them one notch below the Model 5 and are not nearly as common as the other models, mine have serial numbers of 31,000. The Model 6 for example had numbers up to 200,000. I now think the 23 is one of the nicest speakers KLH made.

[real1shepherd]

"Just picked up a Sansui 9090DB today and to test it out, hooked her up to the 23's. It was like a match made in heaven. Have been running them with a Pioneer SX-780 for a while trying out different combos around the house. But I have to say that the 9090DB really brought them to life and I was really able to hear for the first time what an absolutely great sounding speaker the 23 is (especially in a stack). The bass came alive and I really was impressed with how crisp they sounded (could actually hear words very clearly to some songs which had seemed muddled before). Don't have the knowledge to describe how they sounded but the guy who brought the 9090 to my place (a member from another forum) was sort of reluctant to part with it after he heard how it sounded on the 23's. He has a pair of 32's and now he wants to go home and check them out and I think he was impressed enough with the 23's that he'll start looking for a pair locally. As for me, I think I found my source to keep my 23' happy.

What a great Sunday this has turned out to be.

James"

Sonically, a pair of 33's would have been closer to the Large Advents, but if you're happy with the sound, great! Not familiar with your receiver but the newer receivers from the 80's onward are rated for full power at about a second. Back in the day it was full power RMS per channel into a 8 ohm load (unless stated otherwise) at about an hr continuously. So if your receiver is rated at 200 per channel by the newer standard, it could be as little a 35 watts RMS per channel continuously into a 8 ohm load. And I wouldn't worry about your receiver driving a 4 ohm load, most were fine with that. If your receiver is wired in parallel with the A+B switch and you have your speakers hooked up to both the A & B terminals, then that's what you're most probably running-4 ohm load.