Those of us that love vintage speakers around this size all have our favorite. There has been a zillion threads about the good and the bad about the Imperial 6, OLA and KLH6 but this one hopefully is a bit different. I have no way to prove this but I assume that many people have not recently heard any of these 3 with fresh caps and/or new foam.
In the past few years after getting back into vintage audio many, many speakers have come and gone from the Bodyblue Gun, Speaker and Watch Emporium. A short list of the ones heard and gone are models from Dynaco, Klipsch, Polk, Marantz, Advent and Realistic.
The ones I have kept the longest are one of the first I aquired; A beautiful pair of Marantz Imperial 6. A lady with a young baby decided to sell them so they did not get damaged. I paid the stupid price of $65 if I remember correctly. The drivers and grills came in perfect condition with the cabinets just needing a light sanding and oiling to look fresh. A short time after getting them I had them recapped and better terminals installed by Ben, the owner of Delta Breeze Records in Midtown Sacramento.
The next oldest in this comparison are the KLH 6s I bought off of Craig's List early in 2019. This pair had beautiful cabinets, decent drivers and fair grills. 30 minutes after bringing them home one of them had it's woofer blown apart by a failed Darlington power pak in a Fisher integrated amp. The next day they were taken up to a local speaker repair called Neal's which has a stellar rep here in Norcal. There is no straight replacement for the old resin surrounds so the tech used advent foam and a 3D printer (see my thread on this) to rebuild both spiders and surrounds. This pair also had fresh caps, that Neal's made sure were done correctly, so in effect these are an almost new pair of speakers.
The newest set is a pair of Large Advents from 1974. Off and on over the years I have looked for a decent set of veneer covered OLAs but the right ones never came around. I came to own this pair after a trade with AKer @Lavane . We have met a few times over the last two years and traded items back and forth and really enjoyed the items we got. A few weeks ago I told him I had a pile of stuff for him and wanted to know if he wanted to try a pair of Marantz Imperial 5s. We both are huge fans of the Imperial 6s and he had never heard the 5s. He came up with a great idea, he had a pair of refoamed and recapped OLAs with fair cabinets and fair grills and said we could both try them and if we liked them we could trade. Well when I was putting them in the car I just knew I would like the OLAs and the Imperial 5s just sat in the spare bedroom so we called it a trade right then. After listening to them for 8 hours a day for a week I was very impressed. In another thread I show how the cabinets were refreshed and grills recovered.
As I was listening to the Advents I realized I now had three pairs of classic speakers that probably sounded like they did when new (except the KLHs probably) and that owning all three in that condition was fairly rare. I wanted to wait until I was done recovering the grills on the Advents and KLHs before taking the time to write this long winded thread.
I went back and forth about how to rate these speakers and decided to rate them build quality, detail, bass performance in several genres of music and how good they sound at low and loud volumes. All of the speakers were hooked up over a few days to my front system running off of a Marantz 2252B and ADC SS 412X EQ using Spotify Premium set to the highest quality possible. I use Samsung Galaxy cellphones to run Spotify running out of the headphone jack. The EQ was set flat with just a small touch of boost at 4K because the front room is extremely soft. I was going to set it flat but decided to use the settings I use everyday. I also do not have a huge audiophile vocabulary filled with sophisticated adjectives. The speakers will be talked about in the order I got them. I did not want to change sources because I have thousands of hours listening time using this source. I wanted to hear differences in the speakers, not the sources.
Marantz Imperial 6: This speaker did not sell in anywhere close to the numbers of the other two (there are several reasons for this and none related to quality of sound).
The build quality seems to be pretty decent with easily the best quality stock grill material. The lightweight cloth of the other two brands was merely ok compared with the Imperials. The Imperials also came in a "G" model with the horrible blocky foam so popular in the 70s that is usually dust by now. I was very lucky to find the ones I did. The veneer is very nice and well applied but the Imperials have by far the crappiest wire terminals of the three. They are just two crappy little flathead screws and thats it. I know that the recommended was 18g but WOW, they are really crappy. It seems a strange place to save a few pennies on a nice speaker. That was one reason I had modern terminals put on.
The CTS tweeters have a decent rep for paper tweeters but they are surprisingly detailed for what they are. Low volume listening to jazz and other genres is very nice with a good sparkle that gets better as the volume goes up. Like the other speakers in this test the overall sound is smooth in the upper and mid range.
What sets the Imperials apart from the Kloss units in this test is the bass. The Marantz units are ported and the others are acoustic suspension. At lower volume the bass is not quite as well controlled and it can be slightly boomy. Its not very noticeable but compared to the other two in the test it is definite if small. When the volume goes up then the bass goes deep and strong. These are the rockers of the three. Both the KLH and Advent can distort on the lowest bass passages (example Dreams by Fleetwood Mac) at loud volumes. The Imperials just laugh it off and pound you down. At extreme volumes they sound the best hands down. For this test I pushed all three sets fairly hard but not ear splitting volumes. None of the tweeters broke up during high volume running. The soundstage in my small living room seemed to be about the same on all three. The speakers are on Optimus speaker end tables so the tweeters are at ear height when we are seated on the couch in front of them
Bottom line for the Imperials is that it is a very versatile unit that can do most types of music (I dont listen to much classical or any organ music) very well. From what I have read and my experience shows that the Imperials are more sensitive so maybe better with lower wattage units. @Lavane uses his with fleawatt tube amps with great results. He did not care for the Advents nearly as much with the same amps. Hopefully he will chime in on that subject.
The KLH6s I have are probably unlike 98% of the others out there for the reasons talked about above. Compared to other 6s with the stock surrounds, the modern foam makes for a much faster (best word I can come up with) woofer. The bass is solid and tighter than the Imperials at low volumes but like the other two sets in this comparo, they are very very smooth, maybe the smoothest of all three. The bass is very similar to the OLAs now that the surround material is the same. The tweeter in the 6s has pretty decent detail, about on par with the CTS units in the Imperials. It does not become shrill as the volume goes up either. As for build quality the KLHs are nicely assembled if a bit haphazard looking with the grills off. The veneer is beautiful and nicely applied. The terminals are of outstanding quality that far surpasses the Marantz units. The grill frames however are rather on the thin side and tend to warp with age like the ones I have. When I recovered mine there were no dimples laying flat but when installed they go back to drooping a bit so there was a pucker here and there. The cloth that came on them was a light color that was I am sure nice for the time, but it yellows like crazy.
Bottom line for the KLH 6s is they do everything well except for super loud volumes with very bass heavy music like modern rap etc. I did try some rap and like the OLAs the 2252 can overdrive them on music like that. I could easily live with them for any other type of music at reasonable volumes.
The Advents were quite a revelation for me. I had only heard a tired old pair that needed caps badly before and when I played these for the first time I was rather amazed. For a short time I had a pair of Small Advents and was not that impressed with famous fried egg tweeter but on the OLAs it lives up to its reputation for detail and clarity. I know they are somewhat delicate to too much power and/or clipping but I did push them a bit and they are very impressive. Do they perform like a new silk dome tweeter? No, but they are damn good and teamed with the woofer, they do a incredible job. They will go a bit higher than the Imperials and KLHs but only barely. Like the others in this comparo, they have a nice dispersion and sound great from anywhere in the room. The bass is deep and strong at all volumes with a bit tighter lower end than the Imperials. In case you have not noticed by now that the KLHs with foam surrounds and the OLAs sound very close to my ears. I guess that is not surprising considering the same man designed each one. The OLAs are something else I could live with forever and be happy.
Conclusions: I hate to wimp out but here I go: These three are so close that it makes choosing one to win is really impossible to me. Sound of course is the most important part of a speaker. But for me, it has to look nice with our decor as well. Before I recovered the Advents and KLHs the Imperials were far and away my favorite to look at. Now, it is far closer. If the KLHs would have had their normal surrounds, the scoring would have been easier. I dont think regular KLH 6s sound as good over all as Imperial 6s or the OLAs. They are still a stunning design that has born the test of time well, and I really like them. With modern foam they can compete much more easily with modern speakers and are easily the equal of the others in this test. I am listening to "My Foolish Heart" by The Bill Evans Trio right now. It was recorded live and I can hear the audience in the background of the small club moving their glasses and the drummer's brushes on the drum and it sounds just incredible with Evans' laid back piano. Speakers of this size still have a power to bring music right into the room better than smaller ones IMO.
If you like to rock out, the obvious choice are the Imperial 6s. They get louder and they can take more power than the KLH or Advents.
For Jazz and other similar genres, either of the Kloss designs will keep a smile on your face for years. They both are simply excellent old school speakers. I wont be getting rid of any of them anytime soon.
And now some pictures. Some of them will be older shots that I had on the computer from a while back and some are much newer.
Imperial 6
Imperial 6 sitting next to Optimus 5
* I know that the KLH6s I have are probably unlike any around and that my thoughts about them do not apply to the vast majority of 6s with the standard woofer surrounds. I, along with the tech at Neal's and people that have heard them in our home think they sound better than with the old surrounds. But of course it is hard to describe or prove unless they get to hear them in person.
In the past few years after getting back into vintage audio many, many speakers have come and gone from the Bodyblue Gun, Speaker and Watch Emporium. A short list of the ones heard and gone are models from Dynaco, Klipsch, Polk, Marantz, Advent and Realistic.
The ones I have kept the longest are one of the first I aquired; A beautiful pair of Marantz Imperial 6. A lady with a young baby decided to sell them so they did not get damaged. I paid the stupid price of $65 if I remember correctly. The drivers and grills came in perfect condition with the cabinets just needing a light sanding and oiling to look fresh. A short time after getting them I had them recapped and better terminals installed by Ben, the owner of Delta Breeze Records in Midtown Sacramento.
The next oldest in this comparison are the KLH 6s I bought off of Craig's List early in 2019. This pair had beautiful cabinets, decent drivers and fair grills. 30 minutes after bringing them home one of them had it's woofer blown apart by a failed Darlington power pak in a Fisher integrated amp. The next day they were taken up to a local speaker repair called Neal's which has a stellar rep here in Norcal. There is no straight replacement for the old resin surrounds so the tech used advent foam and a 3D printer (see my thread on this) to rebuild both spiders and surrounds. This pair also had fresh caps, that Neal's made sure were done correctly, so in effect these are an almost new pair of speakers.
The newest set is a pair of Large Advents from 1974. Off and on over the years I have looked for a decent set of veneer covered OLAs but the right ones never came around. I came to own this pair after a trade with AKer @Lavane . We have met a few times over the last two years and traded items back and forth and really enjoyed the items we got. A few weeks ago I told him I had a pile of stuff for him and wanted to know if he wanted to try a pair of Marantz Imperial 5s. We both are huge fans of the Imperial 6s and he had never heard the 5s. He came up with a great idea, he had a pair of refoamed and recapped OLAs with fair cabinets and fair grills and said we could both try them and if we liked them we could trade. Well when I was putting them in the car I just knew I would like the OLAs and the Imperial 5s just sat in the spare bedroom so we called it a trade right then. After listening to them for 8 hours a day for a week I was very impressed. In another thread I show how the cabinets were refreshed and grills recovered.
As I was listening to the Advents I realized I now had three pairs of classic speakers that probably sounded like they did when new (except the KLHs probably) and that owning all three in that condition was fairly rare. I wanted to wait until I was done recovering the grills on the Advents and KLHs before taking the time to write this long winded thread.
I went back and forth about how to rate these speakers and decided to rate them build quality, detail, bass performance in several genres of music and how good they sound at low and loud volumes. All of the speakers were hooked up over a few days to my front system running off of a Marantz 2252B and ADC SS 412X EQ using Spotify Premium set to the highest quality possible. I use Samsung Galaxy cellphones to run Spotify running out of the headphone jack. The EQ was set flat with just a small touch of boost at 4K because the front room is extremely soft. I was going to set it flat but decided to use the settings I use everyday. I also do not have a huge audiophile vocabulary filled with sophisticated adjectives. The speakers will be talked about in the order I got them. I did not want to change sources because I have thousands of hours listening time using this source. I wanted to hear differences in the speakers, not the sources.
Marantz Imperial 6: This speaker did not sell in anywhere close to the numbers of the other two (there are several reasons for this and none related to quality of sound).
The build quality seems to be pretty decent with easily the best quality stock grill material. The lightweight cloth of the other two brands was merely ok compared with the Imperials. The Imperials also came in a "G" model with the horrible blocky foam so popular in the 70s that is usually dust by now. I was very lucky to find the ones I did. The veneer is very nice and well applied but the Imperials have by far the crappiest wire terminals of the three. They are just two crappy little flathead screws and thats it. I know that the recommended was 18g but WOW, they are really crappy. It seems a strange place to save a few pennies on a nice speaker. That was one reason I had modern terminals put on.
The CTS tweeters have a decent rep for paper tweeters but they are surprisingly detailed for what they are. Low volume listening to jazz and other genres is very nice with a good sparkle that gets better as the volume goes up. Like the other speakers in this test the overall sound is smooth in the upper and mid range.
What sets the Imperials apart from the Kloss units in this test is the bass. The Marantz units are ported and the others are acoustic suspension. At lower volume the bass is not quite as well controlled and it can be slightly boomy. Its not very noticeable but compared to the other two in the test it is definite if small. When the volume goes up then the bass goes deep and strong. These are the rockers of the three. Both the KLH and Advent can distort on the lowest bass passages (example Dreams by Fleetwood Mac) at loud volumes. The Imperials just laugh it off and pound you down. At extreme volumes they sound the best hands down. For this test I pushed all three sets fairly hard but not ear splitting volumes. None of the tweeters broke up during high volume running. The soundstage in my small living room seemed to be about the same on all three. The speakers are on Optimus speaker end tables so the tweeters are at ear height when we are seated on the couch in front of them
Bottom line for the Imperials is that it is a very versatile unit that can do most types of music (I dont listen to much classical or any organ music) very well. From what I have read and my experience shows that the Imperials are more sensitive so maybe better with lower wattage units. @Lavane uses his with fleawatt tube amps with great results. He did not care for the Advents nearly as much with the same amps. Hopefully he will chime in on that subject.
The KLH6s I have are probably unlike 98% of the others out there for the reasons talked about above. Compared to other 6s with the stock surrounds, the modern foam makes for a much faster (best word I can come up with) woofer. The bass is solid and tighter than the Imperials at low volumes but like the other two sets in this comparo, they are very very smooth, maybe the smoothest of all three. The bass is very similar to the OLAs now that the surround material is the same. The tweeter in the 6s has pretty decent detail, about on par with the CTS units in the Imperials. It does not become shrill as the volume goes up either. As for build quality the KLHs are nicely assembled if a bit haphazard looking with the grills off. The veneer is beautiful and nicely applied. The terminals are of outstanding quality that far surpasses the Marantz units. The grill frames however are rather on the thin side and tend to warp with age like the ones I have. When I recovered mine there were no dimples laying flat but when installed they go back to drooping a bit so there was a pucker here and there. The cloth that came on them was a light color that was I am sure nice for the time, but it yellows like crazy.
Bottom line for the KLH 6s is they do everything well except for super loud volumes with very bass heavy music like modern rap etc. I did try some rap and like the OLAs the 2252 can overdrive them on music like that. I could easily live with them for any other type of music at reasonable volumes.
The Advents were quite a revelation for me. I had only heard a tired old pair that needed caps badly before and when I played these for the first time I was rather amazed. For a short time I had a pair of Small Advents and was not that impressed with famous fried egg tweeter but on the OLAs it lives up to its reputation for detail and clarity. I know they are somewhat delicate to too much power and/or clipping but I did push them a bit and they are very impressive. Do they perform like a new silk dome tweeter? No, but they are damn good and teamed with the woofer, they do a incredible job. They will go a bit higher than the Imperials and KLHs but only barely. Like the others in this comparo, they have a nice dispersion and sound great from anywhere in the room. The bass is deep and strong at all volumes with a bit tighter lower end than the Imperials. In case you have not noticed by now that the KLHs with foam surrounds and the OLAs sound very close to my ears. I guess that is not surprising considering the same man designed each one. The OLAs are something else I could live with forever and be happy.
Conclusions: I hate to wimp out but here I go: These three are so close that it makes choosing one to win is really impossible to me. Sound of course is the most important part of a speaker. But for me, it has to look nice with our decor as well. Before I recovered the Advents and KLHs the Imperials were far and away my favorite to look at. Now, it is far closer. If the KLHs would have had their normal surrounds, the scoring would have been easier. I dont think regular KLH 6s sound as good over all as Imperial 6s or the OLAs. They are still a stunning design that has born the test of time well, and I really like them. With modern foam they can compete much more easily with modern speakers and are easily the equal of the others in this test. I am listening to "My Foolish Heart" by The Bill Evans Trio right now. It was recorded live and I can hear the audience in the background of the small club moving their glasses and the drummer's brushes on the drum and it sounds just incredible with Evans' laid back piano. Speakers of this size still have a power to bring music right into the room better than smaller ones IMO.
If you like to rock out, the obvious choice are the Imperial 6s. They get louder and they can take more power than the KLH or Advents.
For Jazz and other similar genres, either of the Kloss designs will keep a smile on your face for years. They both are simply excellent old school speakers. I wont be getting rid of any of them anytime soon.
And now some pictures. Some of them will be older shots that I had on the computer from a while back and some are much newer.
Imperial 6
Imperial 6 sitting next to Optimus 5
* I know that the KLH6s I have are probably unlike any around and that my thoughts about them do not apply to the vast majority of 6s with the standard woofer surrounds. I, along with the tech at Neal's and people that have heard them in our home think they sound better than with the old surrounds. But of course it is hard to describe or prove unless they get to hear them in person.
