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KLH Model 17's-buy or not?

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Did you look at the 'sold' prices ? $250 seems high compared to the other 'sold' listings but only you can decide if they are worth it. Being KLH, they probably need no repairs. KLH crossovers usually consist of a single capacitor. An AR speaker(love vintage AR BTW) of the same period may have pots, caps, resistors, and inductors in the crossover network and the woofers are often in need of a refoam. Being KLH, you can be assured that they will be easy to listen to for hours on end.
 
johnjhazel said:
Did you look at the 'sold' prices ? $250 seems high compared to the other 'sold' listings but only you can decide if they are worth it. Being KLH, they probably need no repairs. KLH crossovers usually consist of a single capacitor. An AR speaker(love vintage AR BTW) of the same period may have pots, caps, resistors, and inductors in the crossover network and the woofers are often in need of a refoam. Being KLH, you can be assured that they will be easy to listen to for hours on end.
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Looking at the sold listings, it seems 250 is kinda steep for these-but not too steep, probably 50-60 bucks over average-the cabinets and speaker grilles are in gorgeous shape so that is probably a major factor in the price. Think I'll get them, as im sure theyll smash my frankensteined Goodwill Fisher ST-830's I currently use... Had to brace the insides because the under 1/4 inch thick cab rattled awfully, and replaced the midrange drivers. They sound okay now, they sounded barely passable before. Surely wont sound better than these KLH's.
 
You will likely need to redope the woofers and recap the crossovers. On the plus side, as an estate sale the speakers are probably unmolested. That means the woofers should be ready to be redoped without someone ruining them by putting the wrong stuff on them. The surround doping goop and new caps will add another $50 or so to your costs. So you are looking at a total cost of about $300 for those speakers. That is a bit high for me.

I have four pairs of KLH: 2 pair of Model Six, a Model Seventeen, and a Model Twenty. I have less than $250 in all of them, including new caps and the doping goop. My Model Sixes are keepers. They sound fantastic. The Model Twenty is close. I am still rebuilding the Model Seventeen. The previous owner buggered the crossover and I need to totally rebuild it.

Where abouts in the world are you located? KLH speakers are not that hard to find and don't normally cost a lot of money.
 
Something not right with seller, click on listing and note "items for sale" listings

Those speakers are listed 3 times 1 for a BIN, 1 as an auction starting at more then the BIN and another BIN at a much higher price as noted in post # 2

The speakers also sold 11 days ago for the higher price however they've been relisted.

I would move on
 
RTally said:
You will likely need to redope the woofers and recap the crossovers. On the plus side, as an estate sale the speakers are probably unmolested. That means the woofers should be ready to be redoped without someone ruining them by putting the wrong stuff on them. The surround doping goop and new caps will add another $50 or so to your costs. So you are looking at a total cost of about $300 for those speakers. That is a bit high for me.

I have four pairs of KLH: 2 pair of Model Six, a Model Seventeen, and a Model Twenty. I have less than $250 in all of them, including new caps and the doping goop. My Model Sixes are keepers. They sound fantastic. The Model Twenty is close. I am still rebuilding the Model Seventeen. The previous owner buggered the crossover and I need to totally rebuild it.

Where abouts in the world are you located? KLH speakers are not that hard to find and don't normally cost a lot of money.
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Located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Not too sure about recapping crossovers, but redoping the woofers sounds dooable. Ive seen some other users saying they have Model 6's and Model 30's that have not been redoped and still sound terrific-I guess as long as there's no major damage, which seems unlikely based on the photos.
 
Dswankey said:
Something not right with seller, click on listing and note "items for sale" listings

Those speakers are listed 3 times 1 for a BIN, 1 as an auction starting at more then the BIN and another BIN at a much higher price as noted in post # 2

The speakers also sold 11 days ago for the higher price however they've been relisted.

I would move on
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The separate listings are for different means of acquisition I think. One for local pickup, one for bidding, one at a buy now price. This person has 534 sales with 93.3 percent positive feedback, so I'd guess theyre okay. I can see the concern with the speakers being sold 11 days ago.. perhaps someone bought them, then decided to cancel the order for some reason?
 
Might get those model 20's instead... Dswankey is right, the seller of the 17's seems a bit sketch. And the 20's are a tad cheaper. Only problem is, how do I hook them up to my amp? Its just one plug.
 
Dswankey said:
Something not right with seller, click on listing and note "items for sale" listings

Those speakers are listed 3 times 1 for a BIN, 1 as an auction starting at more then the BIN and another BIN at a much higher price as noted in post # 2

The speakers also sold 11 days ago for the higher price however they've been relisted.

I would move on
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I noticed that too. Not sure what to make of it.
 
The KLH 20 (and 8 ohm KLH 17) is a fine speaker. I have two pairs of 20s (to go with my two KLH model 20 turntable/receiver systems I need to fix up) as well as a pair of KLH 6, 23 and 22. I love the buttery KLH sound!

For the 20s at a minimum you'd need to replace the capacitors as other posters have said. There are 3 capacitors - two 2 uF and one 8 uF. If the cloth surrounds are in good shape you don't necessarily need to treat them with the special 'goo'. But if you do treat them use the correct stuff!

For low to moderate level listening your Technics SA-202 will drive the KLH 20s just fine. The damping factor is on the low side for that receiver so be sure to use beefy wire (and/or very short runs of wire), something like 12 or 14 gauge as a minimum.
 
johnjhazel said:
The Twenty's came with the KLH compact stereo with the Twenty model number. It was their TOTL compact wasn't it ?
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Shot a message to the Model 17's seller, it said their listing expired and was re listed, but Ebay was stupid and listed them as sold. Just bought them and Im now looking at how to re dope. :thumbsup: recapping the crossovers may be out of my league, though. I looked at an old famous thread posted by "specialidiot" i think that detailed a restoration of these things, but none of the images show up for me. :(
 
hornbostel said:
The KLH 20 (and 8 ohm KLH 17) is a fine speaker. I have two pairs of 20s (to go with my two KLH model 20 turntable/receiver systems I need to fix up) as well as a pair of KLH 6, 23 and 22. I love the buttery KLH sound!

For the 20s at a minimum you'd need to replace the capacitors as other posters have said. There are 3 capacitors - two 2 uF and one 8 uF. If the cloth surrounds are in good shape you don't necessarily need to treat them with the special 'goo'. But if you do treat them use the correct stuff!

For low to moderate level listening your Technics SA-202 will drive the KLH 20s just fine. The damping factor is on the low side for that receiver so be sure to use beefy wire (and/or very short runs of wire), something like 12 or 14 gauge as a minimum.
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Im assuming its the same call for the 17's? At minimum recap? ill have to learn... The 17's are 8 ohm? will fit the Technics better I believe. Thanks for the tip on the beefy wire, I do already use some pretty thick stuff.

When they get here in about a week, I can post photos and show the condition. The surrounds looked fine.
 
Recapping is trivial in the KLH 17 and 20. There is absolutely no soldering required. Instead KLH used twist wire nuts. You can do this!

In the pic you can see the two 2 uF caps (left) and the single 8 uF cap (right) that I put in my 20s. I used cheap Dayton electrolytic caps for my 20s. Each cap is <$1. They sound great. 720A4067-CDB8-413A-B610-A272602D906B.jpeg
 
radiotron_ said:
Im assuming its the same call for the 17's? At minimum recap? ill have to learn... The 17's are 8 ohm? will fit the Technics better I believe. Thanks for the tip on the beefy wire, I do already use some pretty thick stuff.

When they get here in about a week, I can post photos and show the condition. The surrounds looked fine.
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Yup, the 17 is 8 ohm and has screw binding posts instead of the single RCA on the 20.
 
hornbostel said:
Recapping is trivial in the KLH 17 and 20. There is absolutely no soldering required. Instead KLH used twist wire nuts. You can do this!

In the pic you can see the two 2 uF caps (left) and the single 8 uF cap (right) that I put in my 20s. I used cheap Dayton electrolytic caps for my 20s. Each cap is <$1. They sound great. View attachment 2141772
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Dude!! Thanks for the info. Yeah, that looks super easy. I've removed the woofers in my Fisher's before, for replacement and cabinet bracing though, not for recap, so this is new to me. Didn't know these use twist wire nuts! Ill buy the caps for the 17's now. :thumbsup:
 
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