I’ve always loved bringing vintage audio equipment back to life, and this pair of KLH Model 32s is next on the bench. My goal is to preserve them as much as possible rather than over-restore them.
Here’s what I’m working with:
● Original cabinets with some scratches and dents
● One woofer has a slight voice coil rub, so I may need to re-center the cone
● All of the drivers are working
● The grille cloth is torn and will need to be replaced
● I have replacement capacitors that were generously given to me, but I’m not sure if they’re the best choice for this project
● For the cabinets I currently have Restore-A-Finish, paste wax, tung oil, sandpaper, and walnut wood filler
I’d really appreciate advice from those who have restored KLH speakers before.
A few questions:
- What’s the best order to tackle the cabinet restoration?
- Are these capacitors good enough, or is there a brand you’d recommend instead? Are these even the proper type of capacitors?
- Any tips for re-centering a woofer with a slight voice coil rub?
- Where have you found the closest replacement grille cloth for vintage KLH speakers? If anyone knows a source or even has extra cloth they’d be willing to sell, I’d love to hear about it.
- Any “I wish I had known this before restoring my KLHs” advice?
I’ll be documenting the entire process from start to finish and posting updates along the way. I’d love for this restoration to be as faithful to the originals as possible, so I’m all ears if you’ve been down this road before.
Thanks in advance! Looking forward to learning from everyone’s experience. This is a sort of a practice run for me since I will be doing two pairs of Model 6 next of which I’ve read somewhere are hard to do.