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Klh 17

FLHXRI

FLHXRI

Active Member
Sorry about the question about the KLH Model 17. I have done some searching and can't quit find an answer. I am new to this vintage thing and have a long road ahead with learning this stuff. I found some at a local goodwill. I paid 20 bucks for them. When I got them home I hooked them up to my receiver. One of the speakers worked and the other one did not. From searching ak I learned that these need to be recapped. Could that be the problem with the non working speaker or maybe a loose wire. Am I on the right track? Thanks in advance.
 

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Open up the bad speaker and measure the resistance across the terminals of both the woofer and the tweeter. If you get a reading of either 0 or infinity, you have a blown driver that will need to be replaced.

If both the woofer and tweeter check out fine, the problem lies elsewhere. Look for a loose connection, and if there are none, there is probably an issue with one of the capacitors in the crossover. Even if the caps are working, it's best to replace them all because any cap of this age will most likely be blocking out high frequencies and therefore ruining the sound.

Try this and report back.
 
I went over it a third time and there was a loose connection! I am simply amazed. Coupled with my Yamaha RX-497, Sansui SP-1500's, and my Tandberg TCD 340a, I am breathless. These speakers sound so good. There must be some synergy or something I have never heard sound like this! I am listening to Steve Winwood and I am enjoying ever second!
 
Those are some nice sounding speakers :) Congrates. If they have not been recapped, I would do it. The change in sound is shocking. And its fairly simple.
 
nick12345 said:
Glad you fixed the problem! I would definitely recap though.
Click to expand...

What he said! This will definitely make the sound even better. There's a thread around here that goes into great detail the re-capping process for this model.
 
Congratulations! Yours appear to be in very good and 100% original condition. I paid $20 for mine too, with silent tweeters (capacitors) and needing a complete restoration. I thought I did very well. Clearly you did much better!

I'll add my voice to the others and recommend a recap. It'll make an amazing difference.

In your research you'll encounter discussion of resealing the woofer surrounds. This can either help or hurt. (I've done both.) I'd suggest consulting here before undertaking that step. There has been an evolution in thought regarding that lately. It used to be considered virtually mandatory. Not so much any more.

John

PS: Nice Tandberg & Sansuis!
 
I found a pair of dead mint model 20's (even the grills), which are the 4 ohm version of those at a thrift for $4/each awhile back. They sounded great, but I needed to raise the treble on my amp a bit because the caps were old. Well, they sounded so good that I couldn't resist cranking them up to a fairly loud level (before I knew that they are not rated for much juice) and blew one tweeter on the first day. I found another tweeter and recapped them one-at-a-time, and I must say I've recapped other speakers but it is a very pronounced and noticeable improvement when done on these speakers.

I picked up some model 24's at the same thrift today for the same price - cabs a bit rough but drivers are in great shape. I loved watching people push these aside to view the BPC all-in-one and boombox speakers.
 
I am noticing that these speakers need some power. I find that if I play them at a low level then they don't sound as good. If I do a recap I am going to be asking alot of questions. I saw that entry about the how to but the pictures don't show what everything is connected to. I need to see thing step by step. Boreas it is funny you mentioned that, I was wondering how I would do that. I guess maybe I don't have to with the reseal the surrounds? I think I also want to add some new speaker cloth, I will check that out at a fabric store.
 
Follow Boreas's well-illustrated steps. One note: He used two 4uF capacitors, as KLH did, but that is not necessary. You can use one 8uF cap instead. Same thing, maybe easier, probably cheaper. For the 2uF caps however you DO need 2 separate caps.

When you open the speakers you may find that you have the black PVC caps with red ends. It is IMPERATIVE that those be replaced. They fail very frequently.

Good luck with the 17s.

Kent
 

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After you recap the 17s, get some 5s and/or 12s - even better KLH sound from those, which need to be recapped too, of course.
 
JKent said:
Follow Boreas's well-illustrated steps. One note: He used two 4uF capacitors, as KLH did, but that is not necessary. You can use one 8uF cap instead. Same thing, maybe easier, probably cheaper. For the 2uF caps however you DO need 2 separate caps.

When you open the speakers you may find that you have the black PVC caps with red ends. It is IMPERATIVE that those be replaced. They fail very frequently.

Good luck with the 17s.

Kent
Click to expand...

Hi, Kent!

I'd love to take credit for that terrific thread but its author is Specialidiot. Pure genius!

Adding to what you said about the dual 4uF caps, some manufacturers don't make an 8uf cap. Dayton is an example. They make an 8.1 or 8.2 that would be fine. The new caps are either 5% or 10% caps - I doubt that the KLH originals were that good - so a difference of 0.1 or 0.2 is still in spec.

John
 
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