KLH 12 Comes home!

So this last weekend I finally fired them up and what do I get? Both woofers out, one tweeter out. All mids, one tweet and the micro tweeters work great. So I need two woofers and possibly two matching tweeters. Definitely felt frustrated.

Two hours later, when I'm fuming less I open CL and what do I see? An early KLH model 23 pair for nearly nothing. So I found a donor pair about an hour later in perfect working condition.

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Hate to take them apart, but I really want to bring my 12's to life. Really.
 
23's are pretty common. Don't feel too bad. Those 12's really deserve it.

Might be worth it to contact the original seller of the 12's and see if you can't get a bit of compensation. He didn't say anything about non-working drivers, did he?
 
I contacted him and he was like 'give me your mailing address and I'll send you $20' When I actually paid premium for these so $20 was kind of a joke (and I didn't want to give out my address to a dishonest character).

And since he was very deceptive to begin with, I figured I'd just accept I made a fairly crappy deal with a shady character, just fix it myself and move on.

I wanted Model 12's (got them) and at this point, I'm okay with putting in matching correct drivers (and recapping) while living happily ever after with them.
 
did you verify what type of magnet you had, square or the other kind, i may have 1 floating around here, somewhere.
 
They have the round type. I updated them and all drivers work now, sweet! Sadly, they may have to find a new home even though they really are remarkable!

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Again, they sound amazing, problem is on the last two weekends I've also gotten deals on a pair of JBL L100's, JBL 4311's and Snell E/III's and my lovely wife said at least a pair has to go. So purely out of space concerns I'm thinking these will have to go as I can fit the two pairs of JBL's where the KLH's are. I live in a flat, otherwise I'd definitely keep them all.
 
Model Twelve drivers

An interesting tale Roy.
I had a pair of Twelves and loved them but did not have room for them so I sold them to a neighbor. After about a year he emailed me to say that one woofer and one tweeter were dead.
Short story: I sent the dead woofer to Bill LeGall who worked his wizardry and restored it to like new!
Longer version: The MicroStatics were a bonus. I used a set with my Twelves but they are not original. They're worth over $100/pr now so factor that in when you compute your losses.
The contour boxes OTOH are absolutely essential--they are the crossovers. I rebuilt not only my own external crossovers (contour boxes) but also did some for other folks. In all I rebuilt about a dozen of those boxes, using everything from NPEs to big Clarity Caps. You really need to replace the caps. Some of them are the infamous black and red PVC caps and they fail. Best bet IMHO is to use film caps for the lower values and NPEs for the higher values. A rather long thread here describes a couple of the rebuilds http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=4111
Also replace the resistors! The Twelve used 5w resistors and I have seen more than one burned and/or cracked resistor in Twelves and Fives.
Looking at the crossover can be a bit confusing if you're trying to determine what caps are needed because there are several dual-value caps in there. Here's what is needed for each speaker:
2) 50uF
1) 16uF
3) 4uF
1) 3uF
The woofer: It's 12" according to KLH literature but as audiojones pointed out the frame really measures a bit under 11". But to avoid confusion let's agree to call it the KLH 12" woofer. The attached KLH ad calls the woofer 12" and it calls the two 4 -1/2" mids 3". Go figure.
It's true that the Five and Twenty-Three also used a 12" woofer and I, like most of us, had always assumed they were the same as the Twelve. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME. Before sending the original woofer to Bill I was looking for replacements and discovered that the Twelve's woofer has a much bigger magnet than the Five or Twenty-Three http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=8073
Roy, your use of Twenty-Three woofers should probably be considered a temporary fix. Sometimes (rarely) Twelve woofs come up for sale on ebay (there was a pair last week for $99 that did not sell).
It may be worthwhile to send the dead one to Millersound for resurrection. Besides, the Twenty-Threes could be the perfect speakers for your apartment. Some KLH lovers like the Twenty-Threes best.
And as Glenn mentioned, the sealer for cloth surrounds that AK member RoyC concocted for Vintage_AR can make a big improvement in bass response. I was blown away by the improvement after treating the woofers in my KLH Model Fives. KLH issued a Service Bulletin back in the day that specified that all cloth surround woofers as well as the "12.5" mid (used in the Models Twelve and Five) should be re-coated. Also coat the dustcaps on the woofers.
Kent
 

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What a great KLH ad -- there is something about those AR and KLH ads from the sixties that greatly appeals to me -- probably the willingness to believe that the reader would actually read whole sentences and even paragraphs(!) and be able to tell a joke from an actual claim to truth.
Kind of refreshing to be treated as a rational being by an advertiser...
 
KLH model 12

You did great for the $100 asking price. I sent an email never heard back. You beat me to them. Now if you can keep an eye out for me for one KLH model six with a serial number higher or around 10000. I bought one in Los Gatos and the other CL ad for one I can't get the seller to respond. SF area preferred.

Thanks

David
 
I had a pair of Model Twelves a few years ago. Recapped the contour boxes and they sounded great. However, they sat in the basement for a year before I ended up selling them due to WAF problems. They never fit in anywhere.
 
You did great for the $100 asking price. I sent an email never heard back. You beat me to them. Now if you can keep an eye out for me for one KLH model six with a serial number higher or around 10000. I bought one in Los Gatos and the other CL ad for one I can't get the seller to respond. SF area preferred.



Thanks



David


Well, they were certainly not $100. For everything it was $250 in excellent condition minus some of the drivers missing, etc. as far as the KLH 6. Are you looking for this guy?
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I almost bought it as I'd like a nice pair of Sixes, but saw someone else selling the matching one on CL for $70 (4 times what the asking price at the thrift was) and passed on it not wanting to have to overpay.


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