Did Early KLH 6 Woofers Really Not Have a Frame?

[stickman]

There is a pair of KLH Model 6 speakers on Fleabay at the moment and the woofers have no kind of complete basket or frame! Just legs attached to the magnet structure and the back of the mounting board!!! I started working at the Design Acoustics factory back in 1975 until 1980 and worked for the RSL between 1988 and 1992 and I've never seen a woofer constructed like this ever!

Was this really the way they came from the factory? If so that boggles my mind as it seems to add complexity to the assembly process which just isn't necessary! Crikey mate!

The auction title is: "Rare vintage KLH model Six Henry Kloss speakers on board! Fried egg tweeters~N/R"

That is truly one of the wackiest speaker construction techniques I've ever seen!

 

[Sir.Byrd]

Wow! That is really nifty. Does seem unnecessarily complex. Any cost savings from less metal (and cheaper metal too, since it would be a standard metal rod) would be mitigated by the extra care needed to manufacture.

 

[hypertone]

why? :scratch2:

 

[Deano]

Yeah I had a set a while back that got water damaged in my storage room and I just trashed it it didn't seem worth the effort to fix.

Dean

 

[Jimesis]

true story.

here's one of mine from the front:

-Jim

 

[jlovda]

Was this done to any other KLH woofer, before or after the Six?

 

[Nat]

It got rid of some basket resonances, but the timing was bad -- they came out just as transistors came into vogue, and people were blowing them by clipping their amps into them, and the KLH guarantee, which was very generous meant that they were taking a bath on warantee repairs, since there was no way to simply repair the woofer (not only couldn't you replace the woofer, you couldn't even get at it since the cabinets were sealed). So they gave up on the unitary construction and went to standard woofer baskets. Incidentally, that picture illustrates the problem -- its just the front baffle. The only way to get to the backs of the drivers was to saw the front panel out of the enclosure or knock the sides and back off. Not exactly convenient...
The original tweeter was also different than later ones -- it, too, was glued in and with exposed leads. Grills at time were permanently attached and protected the drivers. When people started taking grills off, the tweeter ended up with a perforated metal cover to protect it.

 

[foppy]

Here's a great thread with more photos of the insides of early KLH 6s, and a photo-documented account of how to get in there in change the caps (photos on p. 2 & 3):

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=314868