Looking to Clean Up and Fix Some KG 3.5's

[DustinHartAM]

Hi all, this place was recently suggested to me on r/audiorepair when I asked about how to clean up and fix some old KG 3.5's of my dad's that have been sitting in the shed unused for a while. They aren't in the best shape in the world as the cabinets have had a little water damage and been dinged up from moving around a lot. One of the crossovers had a wire snap going to a woofer, while the other has 3 cracks on the board. I think the speaker's themselves though seem to be in good shape and hopefully working order. I looked on ebay and I see there's a pair of crossovers available for a decent price that I might pull the trigger on to try and get these back up and running. I was wondering if there's any suggestions as to re-assembling these as it's something I'm not familiar with. For instance the foam that's inside the cabinet seems to be just shoved in willy nilly and I'm hoping to find out the correct way to re-install that as well. Also I'm hoping to find the right way to get the back and front re-installed to the cabinet. Not sure if something like a wood glue would be okay or if there's other types of adhesives out there that would be the most recommended. Thanks for reading and any tips, I really appreciate it.

Here's a link to some pictures of one of the cabinets: http://imgur.com/a/Ad0md
Here's a link to the crossover with three cracks: http://imgur.com/a/3ggI0
Here's the original reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/audiorepair/comments/3skp2l/looking_to_clean_up_and_bring_some_old_klipsch/

 

[j-wes]

First thing I would do is find a multimeter and test each driver. To do this, disconnect the wire from the drivers and measure for ohms. I'm not sure what each driver should measure but as long as they are above 2 and below 16 ohms they should be in alright shape.

Next is the crossover. It may still work if the traces haven't been affected. Try connecting everything and see if they sound fine. Make sure you follow polarity (+ to +, - to -) and attach the right pairs to the right drivers (t to horn, w to the woofers). If it still works, you may be able to salvage it, otherwise $40 isn't terrible.

For the wires, you can buy those connectors that attach to the drivers and they simply crimp on. If the wire isn't long enough to reach there are ways to crimp 2 pieces together to get the length you need. If you have a soldering iron you can just cut a new length of wire and replace the old one. Remember to follow the correct polarity and go to the proper drivers.

As for the cabs, they don't look too terrible. Wood glue should be fine to reattach the backs once you get everything working good. If the sides aren't dinged up to bad then howards restor-a-finish might work good. Otherwise you might be better off using a citrus stripper and then going over i with some fine sandpaper and staining. You can always look around and see what other people have done.

Best of luck with your project. I owned a pair of these and they are certainly a good set of speakers.

 

[DustinHartAM]

First of all, thank you for taking the time to reply. Honestly wasn't expecting anything quickly so this was a pleasant surprise. Just for giggles I decided to try and do a quicky splice of the one cable that had snapped with what was left of it and decided to try and see if I could get at least one of these cabinets working to test it out. Sure enough, it does! I've only got one hooked up and it seems to be working fairly well. After tweaking with the settings on my receiver I got it to sound pretty decent with my sub (Polk PSW-10). I was terrified I was going to turn these on and discovered my dad already blew them years ago and that's why they've been stowed away in the shed. Hopefully tomorrow I can try to play with the other cabinet that has the messed up crossover board and maybe it's in decent enough shape to work. I gotta try the Howard's tomorrow also. I made a trip to the hardware store only to show up a few minutes after closing.

Hopefully everything with the other cabinet works and I'll be able to build a decent little 2.1 system with these speakers. I'd like to set them up in another room to be a decent spot for watching a movie or something. Just need another receiver to drive it as the system in their currently is my old logitech z-5500's.

 

[DustinHartAM]

I started playing around with the other cabinet just a little bit ago and was pleasantly surprised that the other crossover still worked despite the cracks in the board. I also went and got the Howards Restor-a-finish and they did a pretty nice job of cleaning them up. I'm pretty content with it for now. These speakers won't exactly be the focal point of the room they'll end up in so the imperfections don't bother me much. One thing I'm not certain on, should I remove the previous adhesive used before putting the front and back pieces into place or is it okay to just glue over the old?

 

[toxcrusadr]

It's OK to glue to old glue, but you may have trouble getting the pieces to mate up smooth and flush. If so don't hesitate to scrape off some old glue. But that kind of glue is usually stronger than wood (if it's not already flaking off for some reason), so it should be fine to glue to it.

Try these without the sub too. The kg4 and 4.2 are formidable for their size. Although you might be into a lot of boom-boom in which case, by all means, sub to your gut's content.

If you are intrepid and have a soldering iron, we can talk about replacing the tired capacitors in the crossover with some inexpensive new ones for an even better sound, especially from the horn. Then once you're in love with dad's old speakers, you'll want to spend the best $60 you ever spent on audio and replace the horn diaphragms with Crites titanium. You can read up on all that in the Speakers forum or here.

Keep us posted and welcome to AK.

 

[DustinHartAM]

The previous glue seems to be very stout so I think I'll leave it be for the most part and just remove where it might be messing with the fit. As for a sub, my tastes in music are a little less civilized than most would be a good way to put it. I'm very much into heavier forms of music (metal, death metal, hardcore, the other million subgenre's) so I definitely like a little extra oomph (emphasis on little). They really pair well so far with my cobbled together setup so far. Shame I can't leave it together like this because I don't have enough room at my desk to keep them here. I think for now I'll keep these as they are once I get them sealed back up. I did read up on the Crite's stuff after it was suggested to me and it does sound quite interesting. Maybe someday down the line I'll be interested in trying that stuff out. Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions. I really appreciate it.

 

[j-wes]

Glad to hear they're going to make it. These speakers should work very well for what you listen to. Enjoy!

 

[DustinHartAM]

Glad to hear they're going to make it. These speakers should work very well for what you listen to. Enjoy!

Yup I'm pretty stoked on it, one of the few things that's gone right recently is this little task. Would've loved to go ahead and pick up a new receiver but I just had to pay a $2000 car repair bill so that's going to wait for a little while.