Renovation of my KLH 17's is complete (long)

Hello everyone, I picked up a pair of 17's back in April, I am beginning the process of restoring them. I just bought the Vintage-AR sealant, and I applied a single light coat. When pressed, the woofer cones snap back to their position instead of having that 1-second or so delay. I was wondering if I will need to apply another coat after this one cures? Or will it become more air tight when the sealant cures? I am terrified of ruining the surrounds with too much sealant!
I've restored Seveenteens, Sixes, and two sets of Fives. Like you, I was concerned about appying too much sealant, but this is the easiest part of the renovation. On each project, applied one thin coat, let it dry overnight, then hooked them up and listened to them for a week or so, then re-evaluated. The Seventeens and Sixes sounded fine with just the single application. After several days of listening to the Fives, just removed the grills and brushed on a quick second coat. All sound very good!
 
Found a pair of these 17s in a thrift store yesterday. They were marked $5.99 for the pair, and.. it was 50% day for those who had the thrift store's phone app so I grabbed them. Condition is decent, one is missing a badge- I should have looked around on the floor at the thrift. If it did fall off there it's probably still nearby (edit- went back it's not there). Veneer is decent shape maybe one corner chip. No sound from the tweeter on one, and little bass response on both. So I ordered the cloth surround sealer that was recommended later in this thread from vintage-ar. I will order caps from parts express today.

Question about the 2nd photo in part two (limited electronics experience): Special says "note that the two 4 uF caps are connected in parallel". I assume these are the two larger ones that are glued to the cab, but what about the two on the XO plate, I'm guessing they are the 2 uF ones, they look also to be in parallel- am I correct? Edit: latter half was incorrect- the original 4uF is a dual lead with the dual end going to the two terminals on the switch the other going to the positive speaker lug. So using the two dayton 2uF caps, one end is tied together going to the + speaker lug, the other two go to increase and normal on the switch. I don't believe it matters which goes to which because the original dual lead side is not marked and has the same colored wire.

Reference: schematic from another KLH restore thread in this forum.


Here's a starting pic with nothing done but the badge screws removed:
klh17a.jpg
 
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Greetings. Just posting to thank the many contributors to this topic. I picked up a pair of model 20's yesterday. No sound at all from one of the tweeters but they test ok. Capacitors ordered from PE, surround sealer ordered from Vintage AR. Cabinets cleaned and oiled. Thanks to the AK community!
 
Found a pair of these 17s in a thrift store yesterday. They were marked $5.99 for the pair, and.. it was 50% day for those who had the thrift store's phone app so I grabbed them. Condition is decent, one is missing a badge- I should have looked around on the floor at the thrift. If it did fall off there it's probably still nearby (edit- went back it's not there). Veneer is decent shape maybe one corner chip. No sound from the tweeter on one, and little bass response on both. So I ordered the cloth surround sealer that was recommended later in this thread from vintage-ar. I will order caps from parts express today.

Question about the 2nd photo in part two (limited electronics experience): Special says "note that the two 4 uF caps are connected in parallel". I assume these are the two larger ones that are glued to the cab, but what about the two on the XO plate, I'm guessing they are the 2 uF ones, they look also to be in parallel- am I correct? Edit: latter half was incorrect- the original 4uF is a dual lead with the dual end going to the two terminals on the switch the other going to the positive speaker lug. So using the two dayton 2uF caps, one end is tied together going to the + speaker lug, the other two go to increase and normal on the switch. I don't believe it matters which goes to which because the original dual lead side is not marked and has the same colored wire.

Reference: schematic from another KLH restore thread in this forum.


Here's a starting pic with nothing done but the badge screws removed:
View attachment 799333
Nice! Always loved the cabs on the Seventeens and Twenties.
Looks as though you figured out the crossovers.
Looks like these were horizontal on a book shelf for a long time, note the lighter areas on the grill cloth where the badges go.
Badges show up on fleabay all the time, should be easy to replace.

My daughter has the pair I restored and loves them. Said she's keeping them forever!
 
Thanks for the replies. I didn't forget to follow up, I made a video which I was going to link, playing a few tunes (excerpts) but the new copyright detectors blocked the audio. I figured it would be ok if it was brief, but I was wrong. So about two weeks after my last post, I got a second pair of seventeens from an AK'er as I posted a note looking for a tweeter. The cabs had some water damage but the woofers are in excellent shape (maybe better than my pair). So I took one of the tweeters out of the donor pair and got the pair pictured above going. Also did the surrounds with the stuff from vintage-AR. I haven't done any work on the cabs yet cause they look decent as is, but will light sand some minor scratches and use Howard's on them eventually. I also forgot to mention I sealed the inside corners/edges with whatever I had in the garage.

I listened to them on my basement system last month with a Realistic STA-100 that is in great shape, plus a Rega turntable and a Sony CDP-302 cd player. Really enjoy the sound and the imaging. I've heard things on well known Beatles songs that I never noticed before. Bass sounds great too especially with 60s jazz recordings with acoustic bass. As of this weekend, they are being driven by a Pioneer SX-750 also found in a thrift store Friday. Sounds great as well with the pioneer though I didn't get a chance to open the receiver and really clean it yet.

As for the grills, yes I did note the badge marks, and that they were probably book-shelved for many-a-year which is kind of cool when trying to imagine where they came from. It could have been a house, a doctors office, a church or an Elk's Lodge. I used the scotch guard spray cleaner on them and they came out clean looking, but still, a fawny brown color. It's not bad (and actually growing on me) but I may try the diluted bleach trick that others have posted about. Perhaps on the donor pair first which can go in the garage.
 

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Part two

Here are the old and new caps side by side.
oldnew.jpg


I purchased the caps from Parts Express at http://www.partsexpress.com. It only took 3 days for the caps to arrive, and I added in a few other items I needed too.

Here's what I ordered:
027-414 DAYTON DMPC-2.0 2.0uF-250V PO .. qty 4 $1.52 ea.
027-421 DAYTON DMPC-4.0 4.0uF-250V PO .. qty 4 $1.85 ea.

Here is the reassembled crossover with the new caps. I used hotmelt glue to fasten the double caps. Note that the two 4MF caps are in parallel, giving a total of 8MF.
recapped.jpg

recapped2.jpg


Solder and wirecap the tweeter leads, and put it back in it's place
soldertweet.jpg


Before you put the driver back in, its time to put the stuffing and shroud back in place. Don't forget the gloves.
restuff.jpg

reshroud.jpg


Solder in the driver leads, and mount it back on the cabinet with the 8 screws that you haven't lost.
solderwoof.jpg


With any luck, here's how it looks! Note that I cleaned and oiled the cabinets.
donenude1.jpg

donenude2.jpg


Just a couple of steps yet. Since the cabs were filthy, I figured the grills were too. They were in perfect shape, so instead of replacing the grill cloth, I used a fabric cleaner to freshen them up. Screw the logo back in place and you are DONE!
cleangrill.jpg


Here are a couple more shots of the finished product.

done1.jpg

done2.jpg


I must say that I'm VERY pleased with how these turned out. Total time invested was about 4 hours, including taking pictures. I've moved them up to my home office, driving them with my Marantz 1060 being fed by iTunes via a dbx 3BX-DS. I had planned on selling them, but oh my they sound mighty nice!

I've listened to a nice variety of music as I've put this together. I hope someone can find this post useful and maybe it will inspire someone to take on a project like this themselves.
 
I recently secured a pair of KLH Model 17 for $50 from a gentleman that said he purchase them new when he was a senior in high school. I believe he said 1972. He said he never opened them up, thus, I figured everything was original. He also gave me a pair of Realistic Optima 1B no charge. Nice Walnut cabinets, and 3 drivers. Guess he wanted to get everything out of his garage. He said he got the Optima a few years later to match up with the KLH as he was running (4) speakers off an old JVC receiver. I listened to the KLH and they sounded great. Much richer than my bookshelf AR-4X. (clearly they are a bigger box with a bigger woofer). I hooked up the Optima and they sounded pretty good as well. Not quite as nice as my Original Large Advents, but similar sound I think. I may just finish them and give them to my 19 year old alsong with an old Sansui 2000x I have.


When I opened up the KLH they looked a little different from the pics in this posting. There were essentially two very small black caps. One with the three wires ( two blue wires and one black) marked TEMPLE 2A1-1 RED 2x2 uf 50 VNP connected to the switch and another an 8UF-50V. (Sorry didn't get the initial pictures I was too excited to get started)


I purchased the same Dayton caps as represented here and connected them up the same way. I wrapped them together with electrical tape and crazy glued the bigger caps to the cabinet. I sealed the cabinets with the Mortite Caulking Cord I got from Lowe's. Its pliable like putty. Worked great.


I listened to the KLH before and after and frankly cannot tell the difference. I guess the good news is they are new and should last for quite some time.


I just need to finish the cabinets with some Restore-A-Finish and I will also replace the fabric on the grills. I found some tea dyed Irish Linen 28ct at Michael's. I think they were $8.99 for the roll 20"x24". I used this to replace the fabric on my two pairs of AR-4x speakers which had the caps all replaced as well. (see pic) They came out great and sound even better.


Thanks for the help, I could not have tackled this without the thread as I am pretty new to this.
 

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Just a follow up to my November post. The crossover re-cap and woofer surround seal went well, and these model 20's have new life!

I am using them in my dining room, replacing a pair of Dynaco A25's. They sound very nice in this setting, much better than the Dynaco's which sound dull though I suspect the Dynaco's could use a recap. They are being powered by a pair of Marantz monoblock amps driven by an Adcom GTP 500.

Again, thanks for this great resource.

Steve
 
Just a follow up to my November post. The crossover re-cap and woofer surround seal went well, and these model 20's have new life!

I am using them in my dining room, replacing a pair of Dynaco A25's. They sound very nice in this setting, much better than the Dynaco's which sound dull though I suspect the Dynaco's could use a recap. They are being powered by a pair of Marantz monoblock amps driven by an Adcom GTP 500.

Again, thanks for this great resource.

Steve

Awesome! Which caps did you end up using (values)? I'm aiming for some model 23's but I'd like to know what choices you guys are making and the results to help me when my time comes.
 
Awesome! Which caps did you end up using (values)? I'm aiming for some model 23's but I'd like to know what choices you guys are making and the results to help me when my time comes.
From Parts Express, 4 of each of the following as recommended by others on this forum:

Dayton Audio DMPC-4.0 4.0uF 250V Polypropylene Capacitor

Dayton Audio DMPC-2.0 2.0uF 250V Polypropylene Capacitor
 
Ha!!! A 10 year old thread & I'm just now getting ready to try this on my 17's. Just opened them up & my caps looks different as well from the original posting. Mine are the small black 8mfd caps like on a few pages back.

I have all the parts suggested, I just hope I can figure it all out!
Any extra help would be welcomed.

Thanks, mOOndog
 
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so, the original cap has 2 red wires coming from it to the high frequency switch. The new cap has one red wire, but the wire disappears at the bottom of the photo. Ho exactly do you hook that up if there's 2 posts?

I'm going to have to dig into my model 6. I had this pair for a few months, and one of the tweeters is now producing no sound. Do bad caps cause the tweets to sound dull, or absent entirely? Since it worked before, could I assume the tweeter blew?
 
so, the original cap has 2 red wires coming from it to the high frequency switch. The new cap has one red wire, but the wire disappears at the bottom of the photo. Ho exactly do you hook that up if there's 2 posts?

I'm going to have to dig into my model 6. I had this pair for a few months, and one of the tweeters is now producing no sound. Do bad caps cause the tweets to sound dull, or absent entirely? Since it worked before, could I assume the tweeter blew?

Tweets go dull or stop playing on the KLH's with the original mexican caps. (Black and red). The cap with the two red wires coming out one end is actually a dual cap (two caps under one skin). (2) 2uf caps replace it stacked together in parallel with the leads on one end twisted together. Then just follow the leads of the original caps to the appropriate terminals. FYI, the other cap is an 8 uf.
 
After a few years of enjoying my Goodwill-found 17s as is.. I finally built up the courage to replace the caps. I am an electronics novice, but recently also acquired a Marantz 2220 which I successfully relamped. Previously 1 speaker worked well, but the other only put out minimal sound from the woofer. I replaced the caps in both speakers, NOW they've swapped characteristics..... The speaker that didn't work now sounds wonderful, but the one that previously worked well has the same symptoms as the non-working one from before. Can anyone please advise on where I may have gone wrong? Did I somehow fry the new capacitors? I used a volt meter to measure resistance on the non-working "new" capacitors and it reads open (not sure if that's how one tests a capacitor). Did I possibly just not do a good job soldering? Everything seemed secure and I completed the recap start to finish twice on the non-working speaker. Please help. Thank you!
view
 
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I recently bought a pair of model twenties from Craigslist. They sound OK, but not great. I believe the tweeters work but they are not strong and overall the sound is muddy. They do not sound as good as my AR-4axs which I also bought on Craigslist a few months ago and sound fantastic.

The Model twenties appear to be all original and never worked on. I can't wait to open them up and do a restoration a la this great ten year running thread. I have high hopes that they will sound excellent when I'm done.
 
Great thread! I am restoring model 5's now and will work on model 6's next. These are my first speaker restorations. I am learning as I go, so your thread and particularly the photos are a great help.
 
I am starting a recap of my KLH 6's and find these pictures and instructions very helpful. If anyone has done a restore on a pair of 6's, I'd be interested in any differences that I may find in these pictures versus what I want to do. I already know about the epoxy, but once that is chipped away, can I follow the same instructions and use the same replacement parts?
 
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