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Nice Model Seven's


Andy

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Ebay number 230129745945. Here's a pretty nice looking pair not seen every day. They look like they might be the 12-ply marine plywood version, but one would have to see a close-up photo of the back corner to be sure. The Seven was advertised as an improved version of the Model Six, a 2.6 cu ft. enclosure at 52 lbs., $189 each in unfinished birch. If they're the marine grade plywood version, they are a scarce and in my opinion great early KLH item...anyone in the south East interested, I'd go for them, but the sellers shipping is also very fair.

Andy

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>Ebay number 230129745945. Here's a pretty nice looking pair

>not seen every day. They look like they might be the 12-ply

>marine plywood version, but one would have to see a close-up

>photo of the back corner to be sure. The Seven was advertised

>as an improved version of the Model Six, a 2.6 cu ft.

>enclosure at 52 lbs., $189 each in unfinished birch. If

>they're the marine grade plywood version, they are a scarce

>and in my opinion great early KLH item...anyone in the south

>East interested, I'd go for them, but the sellers shipping is

>also very fair.

Buyer beware: be certain to have the seller of this vintage speaker verify that both tweeters are working.

The KLH Model Seven was one of several KLH speakers particularly susceptible to bad crossover capacitors, the bane of speakers such as the mid-to-late versions of the KLH Fours and Sixes that no longer had the rugged mil-spec, war-suplus oil-filled capacitors used by Henry Kloss in the early versions. These replacement capacitors were paper dielectric versions that were of apparently poor quality, and thus failed after only a few years. I personally have owned four pairs of KLH Fours, and only *one* pair (a very early serial number) had full-output from the tweeters! A high percentage of Model Fours, Sixes and Sevens had the capacitor problem, and it is a headache. Therefore, repair of the Model Seven is not unlike the Model Four and Six with epoxied drivers: rip out the cone or cut a hole in the back of the speaker to reach in to the crossover.

The Model Seven was nevertheless a very good loudspeaker with excellent bass extension (somewhat at the expense of distortion) and smooth mid- and high-frequency extension. The crossover was set a bit high at 1500, as with the Six, and was somewhat of an issue with regard to dispersion at the higher end of the the woofer's operating range, but there was sufficient overlap with the two tweeters to offset that issue somewhat. Power-handling capability for the Seven was actually the same as with the Six.

--Tom Tyson

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An update, I emailed the seller asking about serial numbers and cabinet construction. He replied saying one of the speakers has serial number 00199 and that they are made of plywood.

I'm still not sure of the indtroduction date on the Model Seven, but do know as I've mentioned before they were on the market in 1960, appearing in the 1961 Radio Shack catalog and may very well have been available in 1959, sequentially comming before the Model Eight of 1960. No way to tell if they have the durable oil filled crossovers. I still think they are a nice looking pair of early KLH's and the very low serial number makes them interesting. If they were a pair of AR's with such a low number, the price would be pretty high.....alas, no bids yet on these Seven's.

Andy

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  • 3 months later...

The pair offered in Massachusetts look to have the rarely seen mahogany cabinets along with very low serial numbers. Not sure what year KLH stopped offering cabinet finish choices...maybe 1962 ? This pair is likely from 1959-60. Hard to figure out why Model Sevens often sell for low prices, pretty scarce speakers, maybe only 5,000 units made. The cost of these when new converted into todays dollars is about $1000. each !

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Guest bottom_feeder

I'm the lucky new owner of those Mahogany Seven's in MA; picking 'em up this morning ! they have pretty low serial numbers, so I'm pretty sure the tweeters are OK. Even if they aren't, I'm not complaining for $20.50, and because of their rarity . . .

now if I can just find a pair of 12's and 9's for $20 a pair :-)

I'm looking forward to hooking the 7's up to my little magnavox tube amp and seeing how they sound.

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Guest bottom_feeder

just got'em home !

they works 100 %, so my assumption of the early serial numbers / crossover components was correct.

cabinents are pretty rough (nicks / gouges) BUT, no water damage, and all the corners are sharp.

so do these have the tweeter from the model 6, or from the model 4 ??

just curious - they sound great : )

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It's interesting how the scarce speakers can sell for a song and the common ones often sell for much more ? Those are nice speakers for $20. I was going to bid on them since I'm in Newburyport, but decided to let someone else enjoy them.

I wanted to know about the cabinet construction on these model Sevens, is it plywood or Novaply like some of the early AR speakers used. Folks mistake the Novaply for solid wood, it looks like it - no laminations. I have a pair of model Sixes, serial numbers 00684 & 00711, blond corina finish. which date to the spring of 1958. The cabinets are 12-ply marine plywood which KLH used on very few speakers due to the high cost of this plywood.

PS; I also paid $20 for my model sixes....working 100%

Andy

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>just got'em home !

>

>they works 100 %, so my assumption of the early serial numbers

>/ crossover components was correct.

>

>cabinents are pretty rough (nicks / gouges) BUT, no water

>damage, and all the corners are sharp.

>

>so do these have the tweeter from the model 6, or from the

>model 4 ??

>

>just curious - they sound great : )

You did get a great deal on those speakers! The Sevens were essentially the same as the Model Six except for the larger cabinet with a lower resonance frequency, thus lower extension in the bass. I believe the bass output was a bit "warmer" than the Model Six, but the added extension was nice. This same characteristic was true of the Model Twelve vs. the Model Five -- otherwise very similar speakers, but the Twelve had the larger cabinet (and also a significantly larger woofer magnet) for deeper-bass output. The crossover and the tweeters were pretty much the same between the Model Seven and Six. The KLH Model Four's two tweeters (later KLH-built version) were very similar to the Model Six and Seven tweeter.

One thing to look out for: the woofer surrounds were cloth and coated with a butyl-rubber material. There is no dry-rot deterioration as in the case of later foam surrounds, but the butyl-rubber material sometimes does dry out and crumble, thus allowing air to escape through the pores of the cloth surround. If you listen to deep bass, you should be able to detect clean, distortion-free bass if the surrounds are okay. If they leak, the bass will be somewhat muddy and you can detect some harmonic distortion. Chances are they are okay, though!

--Tom Tyson

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Guest bottom_feeder

yup . . still can't believe I snagged these for $20 . . the funny thing is, about 4 years ago I won an auction from the SAME GUY ! last time it was a nice little Pioneer PL-15 (i think) TT . .. ended up gifting it to my struggling musician neighbor about a year after . . .

THE SEVENS:

really great sound - I have them hooked up to a modded magnavox 6V6 console tube amp, listening to NPR jazz ala mode right now : ) I have a couple pairs of sixes, one of which I've made into a pseudo-model 23 - transplanted model 5 woofers into the cabinets. I REALLY need to do a KLH shootout now:

4 vs 5 vs 6 vs 7 : )

all I know is these sevens sound really nice . . . bass seems tight, so I'm guessing the surrounds are OK - seems the earlier models of the 6's, 5's, etc are less prone to the surround deterioration . . . they throw a pretty nice soundstage too.. . I've always liked the model 6 tweeters

the cabinets appear to be 5 ply plywood . . . but that's just a cursory glance . . .

btw - thanks for not bidding Andy ! these fill a hole in the growing 'Kloss Speaker Collection'

it does amaze me too how cheap the really rare ones go for . . it helped that the auction description was a little blurry as to tweeter functionality. . even so - glad to have them : )

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