KLH Model Twenty Three Restoration Question

[Airjmax]

I'm nearing the end of my KLH Model Twenty Three restoration, and I have a question about the internal wiring. Is there any need/advantage to soldering the wires that were originally twisted together and connected with wire nuts? The connection seems very good and I imagine will remain stable. It's not a matter of keeping them original, but if they were done that way at the factory, shouldn't that suffice?
I should be receiving new film caps soon, and I've already refinished the semi-rough cabinets to my satisfaction. The woofer surrounds have been sealed with the goop from @RoyC, and I plan on using rope caulk/Mortite to seal the drivers. Has anyone seen the Final Acceptance sticker before? I have had several vintage KLH speakers, and none of them have had this.
Any other suggestions are welcome.

 

[GD70]

Those are looking great!
I’d stick with the wire nuts and be done with it.

I haven’t seen that sticker before. Pretty cool it’s still there. I’d assume most fell off over the years. I’d add a little glue and flatten them to the cabs to ensure they stay put.

 

[Airjmax]

The capacitors finally arrived today for this project. Everything else was pretty much ready to go, so all I had to do was remove the old caps, solder in the replacements, and button everything up. I have always liked the design of the Twenty Three with the inset grills, and the build quality is very good as well. I took the advice of @GD70 and used wire nuts to connect the wires as they did originally. You can’t go wrong following advice offered by Glenn! Overall, I like the sound of these beauties. Definitely an “east coast” vintage speaker.

 

[alteclipsch]

I used wire nuts, too, after soldering in the new caps on my Twenty Threes. Mine were inspected by the same person as yours. Lovely looking and sounding speakers.

 

[Airjmax]

A summary of what was done if anyone is interested:

- Acquired a semi-rough pair of Twenty Threes with good woofers, dead tweeters, but workable cabinets and very nice grills for a very small sum
- Hand-sanded the cabinets with 220 grit to knock down any raised grain and smooth the veneer
- Applied Watco Danish Oil finish and sealed with Howard's Feed N' Wax
- Waited patiently for a working pair of tweeters to come up on the auction site, then negotiated with the seller to purchase them for almost 25% of the original price
- Sealed the woofer surrounds and dust caps with the magic elixir sold by @RoyC
- Ordered the replacement capacitors, removed the originals, and installed the new caps in the crossover (Dayton Audio DMPC-4.0 4.0uF 250V polypropylene capacitor)
- Tossed the original woofer gasket and sealed the baffle holes with rope caulk/Mortite
- Carefully removed the "Final Acceptance" labels and reapplied them with permanent glue
- Cleaned the crossover back plate, frequency level knob, and binding posts

Some things I learned:

- If you disassemble both speakers at the same time, mark the components so you know which cabinet to return them to
- Before applying the rope caulk to the woofer baffle cutout, put in the woofer in it's original position and make a reference mark on the basket edge and baffle to help align things. The baffle screw holes will be covered up by the caulk and it will be difficult to align the woofer properly.
- I wasn't aware that a "Final Acceptance" label was routinely applied during production. I have restored or repaired four pairs of vintage KLH speakers, this was the only time I've seen such a label.
- The side boards of these cabinets had veneer on both sides of the MDF/plywood. The tops and bottoms did not. I don't remember seeing that on any other KLH speakers.

I hope this information is useful to somebody that might want to restore a pair of these.

Regards,

Max

 

[GD70]

The capacitors finally arrived today for this project. Everything else was pretty much ready to go, so all I had to do was remove the old caps, solder in the replacements, and button everything up. I have always liked the design of the Twenty Three with the inset grills, and the build quality is very good as well. I took the advice of @GD70 and used wire nuts to connect the wires as they did originally. You can’t go wrong following advice offered by Glenn! Overall, I like the sound of these beauties. Definitely an “east coast” vintage speaker.
View attachment 1926953 View attachment 1926954 View attachment 1926955 View attachment 1926956 View attachment 1926957

Awesome, I’d say the Twenty Threes cabs rival the Fives, both are beautiful! Henry was a cabinet builder, so it’s not a surprise these look so good! You did a fabulous job on the restoration. The Twenty Threes are Six’s on steroids as gbroot says! The only reason I sold mine was because my Six’s were from the original 1963 owner and I got their story from the wife when I got them, I did a complete revenues restoration, caps etc...otherwise the Twenty Threes would have stayed.

 

[JMiP]

This is all great information, @Airjmax, and the speakers look wonderful.

Do you happen to know what a suitable replacement would be for the frequency level thing? I've got one that will not turn to other selections. Although the speaker sounds great, I will want to eventually replace it with one that will works but nothing has been coming up on the auction site. I thought maybe that Mouser or Parts Express sells something that could work as a suitable replacement.

 

[Airjmax]

This is all great information, @Airjmax, and the speakers look wonderful.

Do you happen to know what a suitable replacement would be for the frequency level thing? I've got one that will not turn to other selections. Although the speaker sounds great, I will want to eventually replace it with one that will works but nothing has been coming up on the auction site. I thought maybe that Mouser or Parts Express sells something that could work as a suitable replacement.

I don’t know what you could use, but be patient and set a search alert for KLH Model Twenty Three. The parts will eventually turn up. You could bypass it for now.

 

[GD70]

This is all great information, @Airjmax, and the speakers look wonderful.

Do you happen to know what a suitable replacement would be for the frequency level thing? I've got one that will not turn to other selections. Although the speaker sounds great, I will want to eventually replace it with one that will works but nothing has been coming up on the auction site. I thought maybe that Mouser or Parts Express sells something that could work as a suitable replacement.

There’s three model Five crossovers on fleabay now, and they have the same pots.

 

[JMiP]

The pots in those look different than the pot that you see in @Airjmax's photos above.

 

[Airjmax]

The pots in those look different than the pot that you see in @Airjmax's photos above.

View attachment 1927540

They don’t look the same to me either.

 

[alteclipsch]

Klh must have changed to a different control when they went to the more modern pcb crossover. That's what my Fives looked like too. Still a 3 position control, though.

 

[GD70]

Klh must have changed to a different control when they went to the more modern pcb crossover. That's what my Fives looked like too. Still a 3 position control, though.
View attachment 1927874

That's what made me think they may work.

 

[alteclipsch]

This is all great information, @Airjmax, and the speakers look wonderful.

Do you happen to know what a suitable replacement would be for the frequency level thing? I've got one that will not turn to other selections. Although the speaker sounds great, I will want to eventually replace it with one that will works but nothing has been coming up on the auction site. I thought maybe that Mouser or Parts Express sells something that could work as a suitable replacement.

I wonder if that control is frozen from corrosion. Have you tried flooding it with electronic cleaner? I would take it out of the circuit and soak it overnight in kerosene or something and then try to work it free. Nothing to lose it seems. GD70, what say you?

 

[GD70]

I wonder if that control is frozen from corrosion. Have you tried flooding it with electronic cleaner? I would take it out of the circuit and soak it overnight in kerosene or something and then try to work it free. Nothing to lose it seems. GD70, what say you?

Nothing to loose, give it a shot.