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KLH Six: Best of the Vintage KLH Bunch?

Bodyblue said:
Oh I recovered the grills with a darker fabric. When I got them they did not have the original badges so I ordered a reproduction set from a guy on Ebay. They dont have the pin on the back, they use adhesive and are thinner. But they were $9.99 shipped and look great. He also takes custom orders.

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Yeah, I've bought those from him before. Great guy. I think his handle on the auction site is geekyshrink. The reproductions are just fine. (BTW, I'm not affiliated. Just a happy customer.)
 
Bodyblue - unless the reconing used the same cone and suspension as the original, its a different driver. The cone, dustcap, and surround all looked different than the Sixes I've seen. KLH, just like AR, did change drivers over the years and so maybe yours had identical components before and after, but they look unlike any I've seen. I don't doubt that the change might be for better, but I assumed there was a change.
 
Whew.
The Optimus 5 is very good. Better with the recap.
The KLH 6 is damm good with the recap.
The KLH 5 is better than both with the recap. They took everything my 1010 threw into them . Wish I still had em’.
Never seen a 20 or 23 in my jaunts.
 
Nat said:
Bodyblue - unless the reconing used the same cone and suspension as the original, its a different driver. The cone, dustcap, and surround all looked different than the Sixes I've seen. KLH, just like AR, did change drivers over the years and so maybe yours had identical components before and after, but they look unlike any I've seen. I don't doubt that the change might be for better, but I assumed there was a change.
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If one puts a new carb and intake on their engine, it is not a different engine. The block and heads are all the same. That engine will of course perform differently.

The drivers had the paper cones and surrounds when I first got them. There was no saving one when it was blown so the modification was made to the original baskets and magnets in order to be usable again.
 
Bodyblue said:
The simplest way to describe them is faster. They sound much more like a modern speaker if that makes any sense. I really noticed the difference after a 100 or so hours of play. The have that nice tight acoustic suspension bass but it seems to me they respond to heavy bass lines better.

When I got my set they had been recapped and nothing else. The surrounds seemed fine....that is till the STK pack took it out like a gun shot. It collapsed the spider completely. I took them up Neal's Speaker service about 30 miles up in the mountains from me (he also takes units mailed to him) and he had them done in a week. He had to fabricate a part on a 3D printer. When I picked them up it was snowing/sleeting like crazy and did not get exactly what part that was. If you look up Neal's Speaker Service on Facebook you can ask him. He is a great guy and will get back to a private message in a day or so. He is very reputable and just a great guy........and he loves Henry Kloss designs. I am sure he will tell you what part has to be fabricated. He told me even 5 years ago he could have not have done the job because parts are scarce.

If I remember correctly he charged about $140 for both speakers. He also looked at the recapping work and said it was done well and did not need to be touched. And when I saw the surrounds were some kind of dense foam I asked him will they seal the same. He said they were still sealed but for sure will sound better than the old school surrounds........and he was exactly right. I felt terrible when one of them blew. They were in premium condition and I got them for a good price.

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Appreciate your description. Good that they didn't require any crossover mods.
 
I’ve run into 4 pairs of 6’s lately . All of them the very early version with no access . I left them .
 
Dave1384 said:
I’ve run into 4 pairs of 6’s lately . All of them the very early version with no access . I left them .
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In my opinion, I prefer the earlier versions sound, especially the bass. They are not that difficult to recap, and if it's really necessary to cut the grills for resealing the surrounds, later model removable grills show up on fleabay.
 
GD70 said:
Yes, I've recapped half a dozen or so KLH speakers. Nice, straight forward jobs.
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Well, some balk at doing the early ones because of the epoxied drivers. Takes more of a commitment from a beginner to go through the extra challenges of digging through the epoxy tub on the back and working through the small hole behind that tub. Also can be a challenge to replace the grill cloth to dope the woofer surrounds. (Although I will try pulling the front baffle on my next set as the OP did.) I did it as a beginner though and it was worth it. Got another very early set in the queue that requires surgery on the front baffle. I have more confidence now to take on more challenging projects.
 
The 6 is a delightful speaker! On the right material, they’re startlingly realistic, with rich bass and a beautiful open midrange. Metallica won’t sound good on them, but jazz, orchestral, and house music are all well at home on these. I spun some Sam Smith and Frank Sinatra albums on them last night, and chills were running up my spine the entire time. I can’t wait to get them recapped and buttoned up!

Their achille’s heel is the tweeter, which as I’ve noted before is just too big to go up very high. It has to cover everything from 1500Hz on up, and is pretty flat up to 12k-14k, after which it starts to roll off and beam pretty significantly. As such, they’re very forgiving and laid back, even moreso since mine have yet to be recapped. That’s not to say they’re not revealing-they’re not very forgiving of poor mastering jobs or excessive compression or wear, but they won’t have a lot of sparkle and air.

Kloss was after a flat octave-to-octave balance across the spectrum, so a little roll off at either end of the spectrum was acceptable if the rest of the speaker sounded good. And it does! Words like “detail”, “slam”, “power handling”, and “imaging” did not exist in the 50s, although I will say these things image fairly well once they’re toed in and fed a good recording. But when you’re listening to them, you don’t care about all that. That’s the beauty of ‘em.
 
In defense of the tweeter, the outer ring decouples from the inner dome at higher frequencies, so it has better extension and dispersion than one might expect from the size. For the era, it was quite good. Keep in mind that most tweeters of the time were not so great sounding, and many records were mastered on what we would think of as harsh tweeters, and with such tweeters in mind, so on many recordings, a tweeter with good extension might not have a lot of work to do.
 
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