Big dollars just paid for early KLH

[Andy]

Must be a record price paid for a pair of KLH speakers....yesterday an ebay auction ended for a pair of Model Four's, closing price $1000. This says something for including lots of info in your item description which feeds into auction fever. The two bidders that drove the price so high must not have known that the Model Four can be found for around $100 a pair in many cases.

This model must have been a tough sell back in 1958-60, I've never seen serial numbers above 04500. Audiophiles must have chosen the Acoustic Research AR-3 for a three way design that cost $200 plus

(per unit). That being said, the KLH Four was a fine speaker and was picked as a monitor speaker by CBS Records.

[Guest giannidark]

Hello, everyone.

I just found this website this morning. Very interesting. I have 4 Model 23's which I bought new like 30 some years ago from a little audiophile shop in my hometown of Harrisburg, PA. They also sold McIntosh equipment and records that were made with something called a Skully lathe, cut live during the recording session. No tape. They sounded great. I now live in a little NYC apartment and have been thinking about selling my 23's and getting more apartment sized, maybe wall mount speakers, but my KLH sure are hard to part with. And, I have no idea how much $ to ask. Anyway, they still rock the rafters.

John

[tysontom]

>Must be a record price paid for a pair of KLH

>speakers....yesterday an ebay auction ended for a pair of

>Model Four's, closing price $1000. This says something for

>including lots of info in your item description which feeds

>into auction fever. The two bidders that drove the price so

>high must not have known that the Model Four can be found for

>around $100 a pair in many cases.

>

>This model must have been a tough sell back in 1958-60, I've

>never seen serial numbers above 04500. Audiophiles must have

>chosen the Acoustic Research AR-3 for a three way design that

>cost $200 plus

>(per unit). That being said, the KLH Four was a fine speaker

>and was picked as a monitor speaker by CBS Records.

Andy,

Actually, KLH Model Fours rarely come up for sale, and the ones that do are usually in bad condition. Crossover capacitors are especially vulnerable. Good Fours that work properly are a rarity. I know the collector who bought the $1K pair, and the reason given was strictly *condition* of the speakers; it had nothing whatsoever to do with the emotional description of the eBay write-up which, if anything, was an exaggeration.

The Model Four was made in low numbers (higher than four thousand, however) and for only a few years; it received few reviews, and it was too costly at $231.00 each. Besides, it was 16 ohms (not a particularly good thing during the advent of solid-state amplifiers, especially when compared to 8-ohm and 4-ohm speakers which, during A/B comparison, play louder for a given volume setting). The Model Six was almost as good and cost one-half as much. The AR-3 was slightly less expensive, but far superior, so the Four was somewhat doomed from the beginning. Yet the KLH Four has a special place in history, and the speaker sounds very accurate even to this day.

[Andy]

Tom,

Maybe I should buy the next pair of Model Four's I come across, being in the Boston area, I've seen about 5 or 6 pairs in the past ten years. I think I'm holding out until I find Models One, Two, Three and the Five high frequency unit - these seem to be rarer then hens teeth. I'm particularly interested in finding any pre-1960 KLH speaker that does not have the epoxied in drivers which have been rumored to exist.

Didn't mean to pass any judgement on the friend that bought the Model Four's for $1000, though I was surprised to see the high price. What matters is that if a person enjoys what he bought,the price is irrelevant.

Andy

[JKent]

Guess that grand was incentive. I see another pair up on ebay, starting at 350!

[tysontom]

>Guess that grand was incentive. I see another pair up on

>ebay, starting at 350!

Once again it is condition that usually drives the prices. Because this one had a grill that was cut off and some problem to one of the drivers or something, there were no bids. This might be a good example of a pair that would only bring a small amount.