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I think these are amongst the most beautiful receivers. I have had one for some years, the top one in the photo. I recently paired it with the resurrected KLH Fives and the synergy is fantastic.
Recently on the west coast the other came up for sale and since it was in Canada, no outrageous shipping fees. The seller said he replaced some noisy transistors and recapped the phono and tone boards. As many part can not be sourced except from other units I decided to grab it. Not too bad, the usual broken am antenna and pitting on the faceplate. The knobs all have the metal disc's, I am missing one on my original.
The broken antenna is an easy fix, far easier then almost any other am antenna broken from it bracket. Have just mated it with a couple of test speakers and seems to be working. I will hook it to my KLH Fives over the next few days as well as my Wharfedale W70s. If it holds up, it may be the tipping point pushing me to unload most of my amps, tuners and receivers, finally.
My original is s/n 94xx and new one is 37xx. There was one on ebay with 10525. It would be interesting to nail down the lowest or starting and ending number to figure out total production. They were not as rare as the 16 but pretty rare.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
Follow Ups:
Hi , Brisn and others:
Your post just reminded me that I own two KLH Model 27 receivers, Both are not operating properly. If you or anyone else reading this note needs one for parts or wishes to restore another unit or two , kindly send me a note. Price is negotiable. I have no intention to work on either one now or in the future.
(Local purchase is preferred)
Thanks!
Richard Links
Berkeley, Ca.
have a great midrange and exceptional bass. Beautiful cabinets round out these gems. I use 'em with my home theater w/Sansui 9090DB and they sing, both for film and music (the OPPO does a great job w/Redbook).
There is another audio site where there are a decent number of threads related to the early KLH speakers including the Fives. Also, some good discussions on rebuilding and restoration. I got mine some years ago and they sat, I figured I was never going to be strong enough to go through them and when I ran into someone with a set of 23s through he absolutely loved and mentioned someday he had to find a set of Fives or even Twelves. He was buying some stuff from me so, I told him I had a surprise for him and showed him the Fives. He dug into them and found the caps were bad so recapped them. He later on a visit mentioned he was not especially impressed with them so I swapped them back. He did not change the gaskets nor sealed the surrounds so they leaked like a sieve and there was virtually no bass. I pulled them apart and sealed the leaks and am burning them in but they are just as I remembered them from when they were in production.The key is that unlike other speakers, the surrounds need special attention being cloth and a good sealer is really available from one person. There is a lot of fiction and falsified on the net regarding the sealing but each will affect the driver performance, from minor to all but destroying them over time. With all that guys are doing that is wrong in this regard, in about 5 years cloth surround KLH and AR drivers are going to flood the market but most will not be usable unless there is found a way to remove all the the sealer. If I were much younger, I think I would start hoarding them and get the sealer from Vintage-ar, seal them and let them sit. Both woofers and midrange drivers. Last time I looked, Vintage-ar had only a couple of jars of black and had a statement that it my best the last of the black as some components were no longer available. He also has clear with no such note. He has come closer than anyone in duplicating the original formulation that was never published, sadly. As the original sealing lasted some 30-40 years I suspect I will never need the excess sealer I bought. I will likely look for another set of Fives and maybe stack them or replacement drivers so in case of need, I have readily available replacements.
They also look and sound so good with the Twenty-Seven receiver.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
Edits: 09/12/14
Brian, is this the site you referenced with Model 5 info?
A friend restored two pair of AR-3s with help found there.
"You can’t know what the “best” is unless you have heard everything, and keep in mind that given individual tastes, there really isn’t any such thing." HP
It was one of several. Unfortunately, I did not keep a list or log of the various sites I gleaned the information from as there were several mostly discussing the sealant issue with some discussions and test results going back more than a decade and why I found that some of the discussions as to Permatex, etc. while looking promising were later found to be erroneous as well as speculation as to what the original was. KLH released a service bulletin regarding having to apply a coating by service centers as apparently there were at some point a production problem.
In trying to bring it all together, it seemed one person was doing serious research and testing while others were trying different things. The one person had a chemical engineering background of some sort and was trying to engineer the original formulation or one that could be universally used on both the AR and KLH surrounds and he became ebay seller vintage-ar. In various testing by several in these threads it seemed the common problem was a change in the fs that occurred from almost immediately to not showing up for more than a year. And these changes were audible.
Sadly, depending on when other threads opened on the subject and discussed various postings there was little or no followup later to make sure the information and conclusions had not changed. One reason why even newer threads, quoting from older threads that used the original threads are conveying what appears to be current good info. A problem when using the www.blackberry.com for research and not going back to the source of information.
YouTube has a couple of video showing the sealing of the Five's woofer process and these are quite decent, especially for anyone nervous about doing it. One video does have a problem. At the end with the gent is testing the woofer he pushes it in and the mids push out. Not understanding the construction of the Five he finds that it shows the speaker is now air tight and all is good without realizing it means the cabinet may be tight but the midrange enclosure is not and hence there still is a problem to deal with. Somewhat understandable as not many speakers have this type of arrangement so with most speakers he would be right.
At the time I had not thought about documenting all this as the Fives are not ultra rare nor the surround issue. It seems about the time I first mentioned the Fives there were others bringing them up and hence quite a bit traffic recently related to them.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
KLH did not have a full service manual but service data including schema, basic board layout and adjustment date. At least enough information to keep them going though the transistors might be hard to source as they are Texas Instrument, Motorola, RCA. Source was Stereomanuals and the repro, binding and enlargements were excellent.
The schema, is far larger then the receiver.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
I have never seen one before. Thanks for the picture, Brian!
Dave
Nice.
Both are beautiful. How do they perform?
Thanks for sharing.
........I was a vegetarian for 15 minutes... until the main course.
Each has a couple of niggly issues but easily livable. As for sound, very enjoyable, neither lush nor sterile. Good dynamics especially for a receiver in the 20-30 watts range. Tuners are quite sensitive.
Is not going to knock off say a Sony STR6120 or 6065 by any means but KLH was more about providing a product for listening pleasure. Construction is amazingly tight making digging into it a challenge but high quality and don't let the size full you. It is a heavy receiver.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
The one I just got had a higher hiss level than my original when first turned on. I cranked it up a might and it subsided so, I let it rest a couple of days and today when I turned it on, it was low, as low as my original so while not sure what was the cause it has gone at least for now. Level is low enough not to be noticeable with either the full range Fosters or Klipsch Heresy IIs playing at well above my listening level and source on an open input such as phono. Not any more noticeable at max volume on either than my big Sony receiver or Yamaha set. So, looks good to go for both. I had outpatient surgery this week and it takes about a week to recover so, next week I will play more with the new toy.
My original one has a contour button that only periodically stays engaged. I never use the loudness compensation on any unit so not a major issue but, maybe one day I will dig into it; maybe just needs a more complete cleaning as others were similarly acting until I opened it and used some contact cleaner. All others now work so maybe I was just too conservative with the cleaner as soon after buttoning it up, it started acting up again.
With just a brief listen with the newly rebuilt Klipsch HIIs tonight, nothing glaringly wrong presented itself. It would need nkce if the HIIs played nice with the receiver now because before the rebuild they did not get along together. The receiver is quite synergistic with the KLH Five, not surprisingly. I need to mate it with the Wharfedale W70s now that the new oil caps seemed to have finally settled in. If they play nice together then the receiver and my Sherwood ss amp and tuner will be two sets that come out as the winners. I do need to mate the Philips 785 to the HIIs and evaluate to see if it is a 2 or 3 runner horse race.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
Thanks Brian, nice find.
It reminded me that several years ago I found a Model 24 system for a friend who loved music but had a very limited budget. A little clean up and adjustments for the turntable and she was delighted. That led me to a source for those metal knob cap replacements but now I don't remember where. With luck you might find that again or make your own so you can keep your second unit complete if possible.
Also you prompted me to do some searching since I have a Model 8 boxed up in the garage. Not sure if I'll ever get to work on it but I found a link to Kent Hollingsworth's article on restoration which should help immensely in case I do.
"You can’t know what the “best” is unless you have heard everything, and keep in mind that given individual tastes, there really isn’t any such thing." HP
Sweet Brian. Love the vernier dials.
David
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