KLH 12 woofer vs KLH 5

[JKent]

Hi

Vern and Rob have been kicking this around. Rob tells me one of his KLH Twelves has a woofer from a Five. I "thought" the Twelves and Fives were identical, except for the cabinet size and the xover. But Rob recalls being told that the magnets were different on the woofers. Does anyone know for sure? I suppose I could pull my Twelves apart but I'd rather not. My Fives OTOH ARE pulled apart, and here is a photo of the woofer.

Thanks for any help

Kent

[dynaco_dan]

Hi

Vern and Rob have been kicking this around. Rob tells me one of his KLH Twelves has a woofer from a Five. I "thought" the Twelves and Fives were identical, except for the cabinet size and the xover. But Rob recalls being told that the magnets were different on the woofers. Does anyone know for sure? I suppose I could pull my Twelves apart but I'd rather not. My Fives OTOH ARE pulled apart, and here is a photo of the woofer.

Thanks for any help

Kent

Hi Kent;

This was cleared up last year by KLHMark if I remember correctly.

The KLH Twelve, Five and Twenty-Three used the same woofer, cone felt marked 23 - 25 gram cones.

The KLH Six used a cone felt marked 18 - 20 grams.

I've seen at least 4 different looking woofer magnets used, round with one or two rings with screws, square with one or two plates less screws.

Also Mark mentioned that with the bottoming problem of the woofer, it needed an extention to the depth of travel and these magnets are noted by a visible bump on the rear of the magnet plate.

I have not opened up my KLH Twelves to see what is inside, for now at least.

I did buy several replacement woofers off ebay, before last May 14th 2007.

I am certain that over the years, some less than knowledgeable folks just bought a KLH replacement woofer based on diameter and bolt pattern, with no information about the cone weight differences.

Here is a brief sample of some of the photos I have saved over the years off ebay, one or two may not be correct exactly.

I have burnt many more different ones to cd's.

Even ones that are different that I bought are not handy at this time to post.

It would be interesting to read a members review of the two different speakers, sort of a battle of the speakers.

There must have been an influence for the mids being side by side in the Fives and so far apart in the Twelves.

[JKent]

Thanks Vern. More info than I expected!

This KLH ad just adds to my confusion. Apparently the 5&12 did NOT have exactly the same drivers. They used different tweeters.

Kent

[dynaco_dan]

Thanks Vern. More info than I expected!

This KLH ad just adds to my confusion. Apparently the 5&12 did NOT have exactly the same drivers. They used different tweeters.

Kent

Hi Kent;

After reading sheet 59 and 60 in the KLH library it is more confusing than ever now.

I believe that in the beginning, at least for the announcement sheets, KLH used a different measurement system.

They may have used a common tweeter later on and just didn't change their literature photos.

AR did the same with the AR-3A's and their switchover to the steel framed ceramic woofer from the Alnico.

This was done for several years afterwards.

Creats less consumer confusion and trying to match up speaker systems.

I have read often about the 10" woofers used in the KLH Five and Twelves, instead of 12".

As a side note, Kent, I printed drirectly from here and the photo was too wide to fully print out.

I saved it to my computer and the printout was perhaps 60% of full size.

Must be because it's Sunday. LOL

[redstone7]

HI, I'LL JUST TYPE IN CAPS SINCE I DON'T SEE A WAY TO USE LARGE FONT AND MAKE IT STICK......I'M JUST GOING TO PUT IT OUT THERE THAT IN 2 WEEKS I'LL HAVE COMPETENT HELP HERE TO TAKE APART MY Models 5,6,+12 AND SHOW THE WOOFERS IN SEVERAL PROFILES, GREAT FORUM+GREAT SITE+GREAT PEOPLE= , THANKS, ROB

[redstone7]

VERN, EXCELLENT PICTURES, I HOPE YOU CAN FIND MORE, THX, ROB

[dynaco_dan]

VERN, EXCELLENT PICTURES, I HOPE YOU CAN FIND MORE, THX, ROB

Hi Rob;

Thank you.

Those photos were just from various ebay auctions that I have kept on my hard drive.

I have about 25 - 30 cd/RW discs full of similar photos from ebay and here.

Until Mark, Former KLHSERVMGR, came along, it was assumed or maybe, rather accepted, that KLH used several different woofers for the KLH Five, Twelve and Twenty-Three's and others.

He brought to light here about the KLH Twelve woofer bottoming, cone weight marking's and a bump was added to the restructured woofers magnet cap produced later, if I remember correctly.

He also added to the library, two reference sheets, #59 and #60, about classic KLH drivers.

I believe Andy and Kent may have more KLH knowledge available.

[boreas]

Resurrecting an old thread, I have a dead woofer in my Twenty-Threes and ?In my search for a replacement, I came across a Model Five woofer for sale.  I know that the Fives and the Twenty-Threes use the same woofer but that there are several different versions found as outlined above.  

So, my question is can you successfully mix these different types?  The one I'm trying to replace is the square magnet type like this.

 

And the one I found for sale is the round magnet type like this.

 

 

Cone weights are 23.7g for the round magnet woofer and 26.7g for my blown one.

Can I successfully use this round magnet woofer as a replacement?  Are there differences in voicing or in some other area which would make them a bad match?

[JKent]

Hey Boreas

It's 10 years later and I know a bit more about the Five and Twelve (Sorry I can't help with your current question).

The Five and Twelve did NOT use the same woofer. The round magnet woofer in your picture with a double-thick magnet is from a Model Twelve. The woofer shown below is from the Model Five.

The only Twenty-Three I've been into had the square magnet like the one you are trying to replace. 

IMHO the double magnet Model Twelve type would NOT be a good choice but the Model Five type MAY work.

Kent

[boreas]

Hi, Kent.

The woofer that's available to me isn't the one pictured in my post.  That's from post #2 in this thread.  The one I'm looking at is advertised as a Model Five woofer, the one pictured below. It appears I picked the wrong picture.  The one on eBay has the thinner single magnet.  Is this one compatible with the square magnet type.

[JKent]

I'm not 100% certain but I think it will be OK.

[boreas]

Thank you, Kent.