Renovation of my KLH 17's is complete (long)

Mine had 4 pieces per speaker. I placed two near the top and bottom horozontally and two left/right vertically. I then placed the shroud back to cover (mostly the woofer area).
 
Finished my restoration yesterday. The came out beautifully. The instuctions and many helpful posts made the job straightfoward. Thanks for RoyC for his highly advanced surround sealant. Best of all, the speakers are a dream. The sound is one of the finest.
 
I have a pair that has pretty beat-up cabinets. The tweeters have been replaced (with quality ones, fortunately) and they sound like they've been recapped. They're not dull at all, actually a little bright. One of the woofers was trashed and the good one isn't very punchy. Not to mention it's very inefficient. I'm thinking I'll get a set of Goldwoods from PE (since they're having a 20% off sale), throw them in there, and see what happens. It's a sealed box so it shouldn't be too picky about what kind of woofer's in there.
 
one ting I've noticed with almost all of the the goldwood woofer specs, is if you believe them, they are very high Q, which will give a pronounced peak in the bass response, and cause it to drop off steeper. might want to measure the internal volume of the cab, and take some time playing with one of the many free simulation programs or online calculators to see what the response would be like...but also IIRC, zilch or RoyC found the goldwood published specs sometimes are way off compared to what they measured...

might want to search KLH17 in the e-wave thread, I thought someone found a woofer that worked very well in those cabinets.

here's the thread you might want to look through....

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=188877&page=2

just taking a rough guess, I'm guessing these are probably near .5 cubic feet, so they might be good candidates to put the AK indignia hardware into.... you'd have to make a new baffle, or an adapter for the 7" woofer, though.
 
The problem is, I'm reluctant to change the size of the hole. Ideally, I would like this conversion to be reversible, but since these cabinets are so beat-up, I may just sacrifice them to build something cool.
 
You may want to keep checking flea bay for original replacement woofers. They show up there all the time.
 
after reading through the KLH17 ewave thread I linked, I was thinking these were an 8" 2-way, not a 10" 2 way....the cabinet volume of .8-.9 listed in the thread would be too big for the indignia setup....

looked like in that thread the dayton classic woofer seemed to play nice both ported and sealed....I guess I'd probably pick a couple of those up, and some of the dayton 1 1/8" tweets and then figure out a crossover for it, maybe a 12db/octave at ~1800 hz....

or PM zilch, see if he has any left over KLH17 woofers from the project ;)

wonder how some AR2ax woofers would work in those cabinets...I have an extra pair that i refoamed....
 
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Hi:
I have a question
Would the process of rehabing my Original Large Advents be the same as all the other posts? They appear to work just fine, so should I leave well enough alone?
That being said, I did the surrounds but haven't messed with aything else. As far as components, what would you all reccomend to keep it as similar to it's original specs and sound?. Or would I be better trying to improve and enhance the audio qualities and in what ways?
Thanks for your help,
Jazzbolito
 
Just bought a very nice pair from Goodwill that I recapped using this thread (vintage 1966). Took me too long since it was my first recap ever (scared), but I think all went well. Both tweeters came back to life nicely (initially no output whatsoever). Now I just need to break them in for a few days. I'll take a few pics later after I refinish the cabinets. :yes:
 
Hi all,
I want to use specialidiot's info (thank you for such an informative thread!) to help the geriatric xovers in my Six's, and I'm ready to order the caps for the crossover makeover only to find out that the recommended Dayton 4μF caps are not made anymore! They were to be wired in parallel to achieve the 8μF original... so now I must find something else and need assistance...

1. Dayton makes 4.3μF caps which would give 8.6μF. What difference would this make?

2. Nichicon makes an 8.0µF Film Capacitor (EEC2E805HQA404). Is that workable?

Advice?
 
10mF cap in series with the positive lead of the tweeter

Hi all, Im taking apart a pair of KLH Im trying to restore and came across the 10mF cap.

Is everybody replacing the original (mine appears to be electrolytic) ? There are no mention other than in passing in this thread. Of course I can just measure the darn thing...

best
 
terasearch said:
Hi all, Im taking apart a pair of KLH Im trying to restore and came across the 10mF cap.

Is everybody replacing the original (mine appears to be electrolytic) ? There are no mention other than in passing in this thread. Of course I can just measure the darn thing...

best
Click to expand...
I did all of them... and with fine results!
Good luck.

Tyler
 
tybrad said:
I did all of them... and with fine results!
Good luck.

Tyler
Click to expand...

thanks Tyler. I will do that.

Interestingly my pair look to have been slightly modded before:
The 8uF capacitor had been removed in both speakers.
Maybe it was not working and someone simply removed it?

Also the cloth surrounds on both woofer are "collapsed". After removing the woofers i pushed out from inside and was able to get them to stick out again, but they feel really stiff and a little brittle. Would using acetone be a bad idea to first remove the old doping?
 
By the way, since my 17's had their 8uf caps removed by the previous owner, I also wanted to verify that the 10uf in series with the positive tweeter lead is original or not. The ones on mine were nichicon 10uf, 50V rating.

I'm going to replace them per Tyler but just wanted to verify that I only need to get a 50V rating on it. Or would it affect the sonics if I get the dayton 10uf 250V rating instead?
 
The capacitor voltage rating is not a concern as long as it exceeds the power usage of the circuit. In the case of crossover networks, the capacitor shouldn't see 50v., much less 250v.. You are good to go with the Dayton's or any other film cap. I've use Dayton's, Jantzen Crosscap, Solen, and my new fav Axon. The Axon's are the best price, sold at Parts connexion, an AK sponsor.
 
terasearch said:
thanks Tyler. I will do that.

Interestingly my pair look to have been slightly modded before:
The 8uF capacitor had been removed in both speakers.
Maybe it was not working and someone simply removed it?

Also the cloth surrounds on both woofer are "collapsed". After removing the woofers i pushed out from inside and was able to get them to stick out again, but they feel really stiff and a little brittle. Would using acetone be a bad idea to first remove the old doping?
Click to expand...

Someone probably tried to simplify things by using the 10uF instead of the 8uF and pair of 2uF caps. That's fine if you don't care about the tweeter switch on the back working properly, but if you want to restore it properly, each cabinet should have one 8uF and two 2uF caps.

5631399771_bd9ac7248f_b.jpg


PUSH THOSE SURROUNDS BACK IN! These speakers used inverted (concave) surrounds. You could try a light brushing with acetone or Xylene / Toulene and it might refresh the doping compound. If you end up needing to reseal them, a light application of Permatex High Tack which has been thinned a little can be brushed into the cloth. Go light to minimize the effect on the compliance.

Here's a link to a short flickr set on my KLH 17 restoration
 
jheu02 said:
Someone probably tried to simplify things by using the 10uF instead of the 8uF and pair of 2uF caps. That's fine if you don't care about the tweeter switch on the back working properly, but if you want to restore it properly, each cabinet should have one 8uF and two 2uF caps.

5631399771_bd9ac7248f_b.jpg


PUSH THOSE SURROUNDS BACK IN! These speakers used inverted (concave) surrounds. You could try a light brushing with acetone or Xylene / Toulene and it might refresh the doping compound. If you end up needing to reseal them, a light application of Permatex High Tack which has been thinned a little can be brushed into the cloth. Go light to minimize the effect on the compliance.

Here's a link to a short flickr set on my KLH 17 restoration
Click to expand...

Awesome info! Thanks so much!
 
I purchased a nice set of 17s that had been stored for years, cabs are in super shape but grill cloth was changed to black at some point. I paid $60 with the original boxes, not that they do me any good! Some of the deals I read here seem too good to be true, so now I stop in at places looking for more gear!

I ordered the caps today, and will start oiling the cabs because they haven't been touched in many years. Currently they are on the dark side, but not banged up or damaged at all! The grilles can wait until I find the old style ivory cloth although the black is not offensive, just different!

The only problem I have is at low volumes one of the tweeters drops out and gets scratchy?? I assume the recapping will correct this?? I shouldn't assume anything.

I have read and reread this thread and cannot thank SpecialIdiot for the concise and well documented restoration info. In fact, if I had not read this I probably would not have bought my newly acquired 17s! After reading this I went ahead and bought a well preserved set even though I may have to work on them! This thread provided all the help I could need!!
 
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