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KLH Model 17's-buy or not?

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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'Buttery' is a good description of the KLH sound. I can listen to KLH and AR speakers all day/night. My first stereo was a KLH compact model Twenty Six. I bought it during the summer between 11th and 12th grades. 1971. $239 LOL. The last time that I saw it was in 1998. By then, my sister had it. As I got various stereos of separate components, the KLH traveled among friends and family members. It lived in PA, DC, and FL. Right now, I only have AR speakers but I often find myself looking at KLH models on eBay. I had one of those little KLH FM radios too.
 
radiotron_ said:
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. :(
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This will be excellent for you:
https://community.classicspeakerpages.net/forum/4-klh/
 
I did mine soldered. But still used the wire nuts for the woofer and tweeter.

Used the Dayton metalized polypropolene for mine. For each speaker a pair a 2 uF and either two 4 uF for the 8 or if some reason out of the 4 can use a 3.3 and a 4.7. That and fresh dope and nice sounding speakers for the workroom. Have a pair of 6 to try in the living room.
https://www.parts-express.com/speak...ylene-crossover-capacitors/brand/Dayton-Audio

Gently push in the woofer, if it pops right back out needs more doping compound. Should take a second or two if sealed well. Both the 17s and the 6s the surround I could see the threads, with both most of the old doping compound was gone.
 
dly66 said:
I did mine soldered. But still used the wire nuts for the woofer and tweeter.

Used the Dayton metalized polypropolene for mine. For each speaker a pair a 2 uF and either two 4 uF for the 8 or if some reason out of the 4 can use a 3.3 and a 4.7. That and fresh dope and nice sounding speakers for the workroom. Have a pair of 6 to try in the living room.
https://www.parts-express.com/speak...ylene-crossover-capacitors/brand/Dayton-Audio

Gently push in the woofer, if it pops right back out needs more doping compound. Should take a second or two if sealed well. Both the 17s and the 6s the surround I could see the threads, with both most of the old doping compound was gone.
Click to expand...

Could I use an 8.2 cap for the 8.0 cap?
 
radiotron_ said:
Oooooo, okay... some nice info on the recapping process. Seems I might need to do some soldering especially for those two caps with a common lead (no problem just an inconvenience. I have a soldering iron). Thanks!
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You don't need to solder. Look closely at the pic I posted. If your 17s don't have wire nuts you can still just cut out the old caps, strip the wire and use wire nuts to put in new caps. Note in my pic the two 2 uF caps. Wire nuts.
 
8.2 is not far off (2.5%) from 8 uF so should not make a big difference. But many will want to be more exact and get a pair to get right at 8 uF. Consider that the cheaper yellow ended ones have a 5% tolerance going for 8 with a pair of them may not be much different than an 8.2.

As hornbostel said can wire nut everything, some of us trust the connections more if we solder it. As the saying goes, more than one way to skin a cat.
 
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