Paratima
E'Wavin'
EconoWaveguiding the KLH-17
The purpose of this thread is to show "How I Did It". No-one has to follow in my footsteps, but the hopes are it will (1) show someone who's on the edge, how easy and fun it really is and (2) serve as a guide for some who may not have a clue where to begin or what to do first. I sure didn't...
When Henry Kloss designed these speakers, he was using the best technology available at the time, tempered by the need to keep the product affordable. We are not talking Voice of the Theatre quality here; affordability by the mass market was very important. Model 17's retailed for $69.95 in the late 1960's. If there were only a handful of these speakers around, they might be worth a lot at resale, but they were sold by the thousands. No matter what the ads on that auction site say, they are NOT "rare". They are quite common, can be picked up at bargain prices and while they produce "OK" sound, we know we can do better with modern technology. That was pretty well proved in this thread: KLH-17
The Bill of Materials can be found HERE.
Another AK'er, BmWr75, got his KLH-20's upgraded before I could even finish this tutorial. He tells about it HERE.
Thanks for inspiration and encouragement: BmWr75, skywave-rider, secondslc, RayW (great cookies), Urizen, GordonW, dnewma04 and everyone who contributed to the EWG and KLH-17 threads, and especially, Zilch.
Over 30 years of building a career and raising a family and other pursuits, I had never really found out what high fidelity was all about. I have listened to the 1812 Overture hundreds of times on my stock 17's, but after this makeover, I felt it for the first time. I started hearing individual instruments, rather than just "an orchestra". What a difference! What a HUGE difference in jazz! The KLH-17 in original form is a good, easy to listen to speaker. Brought up to date, it's as if you paid six times as much and got top-of-the-line.
The KLH Model 17 was manufactured from 1967 thru 1974. So we're talking about, on average, 40 year old wood. The baffles are made of fairly coarse particle board. They are crumbly. You can drill or saw through them like burnt toast and that's about how well they'll hold screws, staples or pins. Be warned. Also, it's tight quarters inside - not much room to manouver. Here is the object of our affection. This was the first model 17 and is date-stamped 1969.
Sometime in the next few years (no date stamp), the model 17 got a slightly better woofer, with a little better low-end punch and a itty-bitty tweeter. It also lost its lovely veneer and got a vinyl finish. Like this:
The tweeter:
If you have the newer model, you'll have to enlarge the tweeter hole considerably for the Selenium, otherwise the work is all the same.
I freely admit that I have all the woodworking talent of a cabbage. Where I walked, you may run, if you have any talent for this sort of thing.
TOOLS
What I used for this project: Note staple gun that also does brads.
Drum sander fixes a lot of mistakes...
Electrical stuff & hot-glue gun
Pipe stuff & indispensable Elmer's
Simply indispensable
It pays to have the holes drilled square. If you're a woodworking hero, you can probably drill a hole straight in at a perfect 90 degree angle. I can't, so I cheat. This $30 rig, available at many hardware stores, does the duty of a drill press:
Like this:
to be continued
The purpose of this thread is to show "How I Did It". No-one has to follow in my footsteps, but the hopes are it will (1) show someone who's on the edge, how easy and fun it really is and (2) serve as a guide for some who may not have a clue where to begin or what to do first. I sure didn't...
When Henry Kloss designed these speakers, he was using the best technology available at the time, tempered by the need to keep the product affordable. We are not talking Voice of the Theatre quality here; affordability by the mass market was very important. Model 17's retailed for $69.95 in the late 1960's. If there were only a handful of these speakers around, they might be worth a lot at resale, but they were sold by the thousands. No matter what the ads on that auction site say, they are NOT "rare". They are quite common, can be picked up at bargain prices and while they produce "OK" sound, we know we can do better with modern technology. That was pretty well proved in this thread: KLH-17
The Bill of Materials can be found HERE.
Another AK'er, BmWr75, got his KLH-20's upgraded before I could even finish this tutorial. He tells about it HERE.
Thanks for inspiration and encouragement: BmWr75, skywave-rider, secondslc, RayW (great cookies), Urizen, GordonW, dnewma04 and everyone who contributed to the EWG and KLH-17 threads, and especially, Zilch.
Over 30 years of building a career and raising a family and other pursuits, I had never really found out what high fidelity was all about. I have listened to the 1812 Overture hundreds of times on my stock 17's, but after this makeover, I felt it for the first time. I started hearing individual instruments, rather than just "an orchestra". What a difference! What a HUGE difference in jazz! The KLH-17 in original form is a good, easy to listen to speaker. Brought up to date, it's as if you paid six times as much and got top-of-the-line.
The KLH Model 17 was manufactured from 1967 thru 1974. So we're talking about, on average, 40 year old wood. The baffles are made of fairly coarse particle board. They are crumbly. You can drill or saw through them like burnt toast and that's about how well they'll hold screws, staples or pins. Be warned. Also, it's tight quarters inside - not much room to manouver. Here is the object of our affection. This was the first model 17 and is date-stamped 1969.
Sometime in the next few years (no date stamp), the model 17 got a slightly better woofer, with a little better low-end punch and a itty-bitty tweeter. It also lost its lovely veneer and got a vinyl finish. Like this:
The tweeter:
If you have the newer model, you'll have to enlarge the tweeter hole considerably for the Selenium, otherwise the work is all the same.
I freely admit that I have all the woodworking talent of a cabbage. Where I walked, you may run, if you have any talent for this sort of thing.
TOOLS
What I used for this project: Note staple gun that also does brads.
Drum sander fixes a lot of mistakes...
Electrical stuff & hot-glue gun
Pipe stuff & indispensable Elmer's
Simply indispensable
It pays to have the holes drilled square. If you're a woodworking hero, you can probably drill a hole straight in at a perfect 90 degree angle. I can't, so I cheat. This $30 rig, available at many hardware stores, does the duty of a drill press:
Like this:
to be continued
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