How are vintage KLH speakers?

Psyre

New Member
I have been looking at some KLH speakers, they seem to be in my price range, just wondering how they perform. I have a JVC r-s33 and Dual 1019, mostly listen to Beach Boys and modern psychadelic music.
 
Many of the earlier KLH models are quite good. Later models, not so much.

Generally, they will all need new crossover capacitors, and if they have cloth surrounds on the woofers these will need to be re-sealed. My personal favorites of the "classic" KLH speakers are the KLH Five, Six and 23...all of which can offer good performance for the price.
 
Check out the 1981-83 KLH mdls 1,2,3 which came with the anologue bass computer.They were very pricey with excellent build and finish and sound awesome with whatever you put infront of them,especially tube amps
 
The 1/2/3 would be hard to find, especially with a working equalizer (aka analogue bass computer).

The Five and Six are both well regarded. The crossover in the Fives is fairly complex, and will cost $60-80 in parts to rebuild (for the pair)....but of the three pairs I've restored, all benefitted significantly.

If you consider the Six, be aware that there are three (some would say four) versions, as follows:

1. The original version, in which the grill is glued to front of the speaker and the woofer is glued to the front baffle. This woofer has no basket, and cannot be removed. As a result, getting to the crossover will be quite difficult....you have to remove the backplate and chip away the epoxy in which the crossover components are buried. You can identify this version by the glued on grill and by a back plate (with the speaker terminals) which is flush to the back panel of the speaker.

2. The second version, with removable grills and a "normal", removable woofer. You can remove the woofer to get to the crossover components, but again they are buried in a hard epoxy which has to be chipped out. In this version, the back plate is again flush to the back panel of the speaker.

3. Same as the second version, except the back plate is inset (rather than flush) and the crossover is NOT buried in epoxy. There is a later version of this one with vinyl rather than wood veneer; they were produced at the very end of the long production run for these speakers.

To me, the three-way Five has a fuller sound than the Six, goes a bit lower, and can handle more power. The two-way Six, on the other hand, is a bit more detailed than the Five.
 
Like any company, they have the good the bad and the ugly. The earlier versions are built better/sound better than most of their later versions. Have the typical "East Coast" sound! Some models can sound quite nice!
 
I had some Model Seventeens and after a re-cap, sounded very very nice. Ones to also consider.
 
I would say that the top three would be 5, 6, or 23's, and should suit your needs just fine. Good luck on obtaining a set.
 
I agree with all of the above posts.

One other note regarding the first design, the tweeter was also glued to the baffle. The screw mounted tweeter was introduced during the 1963 production run. My 1963 pair has one glued and one screw mounted tweeter. I got them from the original owner as she was throwing them out. I did a complete restoration and they sound suburb. I have the later six's from 1972, vinyl clad, they too sound great. I also had a pair of Seventeens which my daughter now has, connected to a JVC R-S33 receiver, and it sounds great.

I'm about to purchase a very nice set of Fives which have been re-capped, but the woofer & mid surrounds will need to be re-sealed. Can't wait to hear those!

The Six is an iconic speaker, one of Henry Kloss's favorites.

You can't go wrong with any of the mentioned models.

Glenn
 
I would say that the top three would be 5, 6, or 23's, and should suit your needs just fine. Good luck on obtaining a set.

I have all three and my favorite is the 23 mainly cause it goes as low as the 5 but has the detail of the 6. Also recapping is easy at it has a single 4uf. Just remember as has already been mentioned, some work will be needed to bring them up to their best performance.
 
Agree on gbroot's succint summary...and while the 23's may be a bit harder to find, they are usually priced lower than the Sixes (at least in my experience). And they have nicer cabinets!
 
Hi Chef, I agree that Five, Six, and 23 are the best KLH (excluding exotic models).

The good thing is they are all dirt cheap. The best price-to-value by far, really.
 
The 5 and 6 were the ones that originall caught my eye.

I've owned both, and they are stellar when performing correctly! I haven't tried classical on them, but 1960's pop, rock, and jazz all sounded wonderful. Heck, they even made dubstep sound OK.
 
I have a pair of 17s that sound pretty darn good while connected to a Harman Kardon 330b. This moderately powered system sounds so good that I haven't opened the speakers up yet! So, I have no idea if they've ever been recapped (I'll be sure to have a set of replacement caps, and both speaker frame and surround re-sealing compound on hand when get inside of them). These speakers seem to handle jazz, rock, and classical music with ease (I haven't played any Blues on them yet, but I'm sure they'd do fine).
 
I agree with others here. I have a pair of 5's I'm about to part with - a great speaker, goes a bit lower than the 6's, handles more power while the 6's have a certain something that sells you. Maybe a bit more articulate upper freq, not sure of the right term but both are faves.
 
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