Renovation of my KLH 17's is complete (long)
- Thread starter specialidiot
- Start date
Joel Brown
New Member
Thank you all very much ... This is a big help.
Audiokingman
Active Member
What are the original caps microfarad value and voltage rating in the KLH model Seventeen?
Tim D
Super Member
Here's the cross-over diagram for the KLH 17 with the values. I see 3 caps. As far as voltage rating 50V or higher is fine. Most good film caps will have higher voltage ratings.
Trivia: The KLH Six cross-over only differs by the addition of a choke (0.4mH) in the '-' leg on the woofer.
Trivia: The KLH Six cross-over only differs by the addition of a choke (0.4mH) in the '-' leg on the woofer.
Audiokingman
Active Member
I see a lot of 2.2uf and 8.2uf capacitors available for sale.
Would they be close enough to the 2uf and 8uf caps to be good replacements?
Would they be close enough to the 2uf and 8uf caps to be good replacements?
Tim D
Super Member
Yep. That's within 10% tolerance and in fact a lot of manufacturers were using 20% caps a long time ago.
Retrovert
Addicted Member
Because capacitors are additive when placed in parallel, customized values may be trivially added by paralleling multiple capacitors. In this case 4 µF + 4 µF = 8 µF.
2 µF is available as a standard value.
Any arbitrary value may be constructed in such a fashion.
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dly66
Addicted Member
If your Model 17 is like mine with the black Temples in them the 2+2 uF cap is a double cap, one wire coming in one side and two out the other. When you open it there will be two caps, one will have three wires. I believe 2.0 uF caps are common, but either two 4.0 or a 4.7 and a 3.3 to get the 8.
jadane
New Member
Part two
Here are the old and new caps side by side.
I purchased the caps from Parts Express at http://www.partsexpress.com. It only took 3 days for the caps to arrive, and I added in a few other items I needed too.
Here's what I ordered:
027-414 DAYTON DMPC-2.0 2.0uF-250V PO .. qty 4 $1.52 ea.
027-421 DAYTON DMPC-4.0 4.0uF-250V PO .. qty 4 $1.85 ea.
Here is the reassembled crossover with the new caps. I used hotmelt glue to fasten the double caps. Note that the two 4MF caps are in parallel, giving a total of 8MF.
Solder and wirecap the tweeter leads, and put it back in it's place
Before you put the driver back in, its time to put the stuffing and shroud back in place. Don't forget the gloves.
Solder in the driver leads, and mount it back on the cabinet with the 8 screws that you haven't lost.
With any luck, here's how it looks! Note that I cleaned and oiled the cabinets.
Just a couple of steps yet. Since the cabs were filthy, I figured the grills were too. They were in perfect shape, so instead of replacing the grill cloth, I used a fabric cleaner to freshen them up. Screw the logo back in place and you are DONE!
Here are a couple more shots of the finished product.
I must say that I'm VERY pleased with how these turned out. Total time invested was about 4 hours, including taking pictures. I've moved them up to my home office, driving them with my Marantz 1060 being fed by iTunes via a dbx 3BX-DS. I had planned on selling them, but oh my they sound mighty nice!
I've listened to a nice variety of music as I've put this together. I hope someone can find this post useful and maybe it will inspire someone to take on a project like this themselves.
THANKS! With my minimal soldering skills, and finding, when I opened them up, different style (same value) capacitors from the ones shown, I was able to do this in under two hours. OK. So eventually, I will (or will not) have to revisit a cold solder joint or two. So far, they sound great. Thanks. (Mine are ca. 1965--I did not have to do anything to the cloth surrounds.)
gogofast
Addicted Member
Retrovert, did you ever get your hands on that butyl compound from the manufacturer? I'm not sure if I missed a post...maybe I did since this thread goes 10+ years back.
I've been a huge fan of KLH speakers over the years but only found this thread tonight. I was one of those people years and years ago using cement glue to reseal the surrounds.
Retrovert
Addicted Member
I found several domestic suppliers of butylene rubber sheet, but did not meet the minimum order.
I had considered mixing up a batch of bottles and locally distributing it (at my cost) as a lifetime supply, but the real world intervened and I have not lately had much time for HiFi. My AR-3 and other drivers still have not yet had the surrounds rejuvenated. (Speakers are unused for this reason.)
Back in the day so much information endlessly recirculated that it was impossible to know what was truth and what was audiophoolery.
RoyC certainly saved all of us from that utter nonsense which had the force of incontrovertible dogma. His heavy lifting and solid research saved countless speakers from the ravages of poor fidelity and raised Fs.
gogofast
Addicted Member
I found several domestic suppliers of butylene rubber sheet, but did not meet the minimum order.
I had considered mixing up a batch of bottles and locally distributing it (at my cost) as a lifetime supply, but the real world intervened and I have not lately had much time for HiFi. My AR-3 and other drivers still have not yet had the surrounds rejuvenated. (Speakers are unused for this reason.)
Ah, I see. Hope everything works out. Last 12 months have been the toughest of my entire life, and I've been away from the audio but now using it to refocus my mind. This week, I've opened the long abandoned "audio surplus" storage room in the house and restarted on a few projects.
pauljb
New Member
Does anyone know if this is the eBay seller that usually sells the speaker doping for KLH speakers?: https://www.ebay.com/str/vintagearpartsandservice
If that is the right seller, I was going to save the link (the seller is listed as away until March).
I found a pair of 17s locally that I'm picking up today and I may need to track down some doping for them.
If that is the right seller, I was going to save the link (the seller is listed as away until March).
I found a pair of 17s locally that I'm picking up today and I may need to track down some doping for them.
Yep
pauljb
New Member
Awesome! Thanks!
alteclipsch
Super Member
Or you can get it from RoyC, a member here and is the developer of the stuff. You can send him a PM through AK. Might get it sooner.
Post some pics of your new Seventeens, lots of followers of those wonderful speakers here.
Post some pics of your new Seventeens, lots of followers of those wonderful speakers here.
pauljb
New Member
Thanks for the recommendation. It's honestly no rush for me. I may contact him if I don't see any of it for sale in a couple of weeks on eBay. I still need to order some capacitors too and maybe work on the cabinets, so I can wait a couple of weeks. I just wanted to make sure that was the right person online to buy from. I forgot that I could probably just contact him directly through the forum, so that's great to know. Thanks for that info, that's helpful.
I'll try to post some photos soon, possibly later tonight.
pauljb
New Member
To follow up on my earlier post, here are some photos:
.
After listening to them hooked up to a Fisher 400 receiver tonight, all of the individual drivers seem to be working. I think the speakers are still going to need all of the refurbishments mentioned in this thread. These were listed for practically nothing locally, so I'm not really worried about putting in a little more time and money into them.
Also, when I saw these posted online, before I picked them up, I didn't see any KLH badges on the grills. After I got them home, I found one stuck behind one of the grills after I popped it off. That was a nice surprise.
.After listening to them hooked up to a Fisher 400 receiver tonight, all of the individual drivers seem to be working. I think the speakers are still going to need all of the refurbishments mentioned in this thread. These were listed for practically nothing locally, so I'm not really worried about putting in a little more time and money into them.
Also, when I saw these posted online, before I picked them up, I didn't see any KLH badges on the grills. After I got them home, I found one stuck behind one of the grills after I popped it off. That was a nice surprise.