Some vintage Kenwood bookshelf speakers I refurbed this summer

TNHNDYMAN

These speakers were given to me by my uncle last fall. He bought them shortly after coming home from Vietnam. There was a warranty paper stapled to the back but nothing indicated a specific model #. They were in pretty rough shape and I decided to use them for practice to better my refurb skills. The woofer is 8" and the tweet was not easily removed so I was unable to identify. The veneer was cracking and peeling in several places, but I decided to just work on a basic level without doing any veneer work.

I sanded them down and restained with Cabot's red mahogany stain. I then applied several coats of MiniWax semi gloss poly. The crossover was very basic and I replace the hi pass capacitor with a cheapie from Rat Shack. For a mid sized bookshelf speaker they sounded quite nice. If I hadn't salvaged them they would have ended up in the local landfill, so I was pleased with the final result.

Found a local university professor who was wanting to create a basic vintage rig and sold these to him for $75. Even though I had alot of time and some materials in this project, profit wasn't really the objective. It was just nice seeing them go to a new home where they will be enjoyed for many more years.

I wish I had 1/10 of the skills of some of the forum members here who have posted their projects. This was a basic refurb that has me looking forward to many future projects. Thanks for letting me share.

TNHNDYMAN

Couple more pics of the front baffle after painting a dull flat black. It was better than the open sawdust front at the least.

westmassguy

Nice. I just finished a pair of custom built Monitor 7s using early 70s era Fisher Cabinets. The built quality of the older cabinets is so much better. Back in the day, speaker cabinets were sub'd out to real cabinet makers, unlike the today where everything is pre-cut, and mass assembled with hot glue.

[Deleted User]

Nice job. :cool:

cnh

Nice work! Not familiar with those Kenwoods but they look like a pretty "typical" design from that period for an 8" two way!

Hope their new owner likes them!

cnh

oldmodman

What a nice turn-around.
They look good as new.
It's always fun to salvage an older set of speakers.

TennMan

Nice job TNHNDYMAN.

drgalexo

They look great. How do those new tweeters sound?

drgalexo

My mistake, same tweeters.

TNHNDYMAN

^ tweeters not replaced- but the capacitor was and it did open up the high end a bit. They weren't world beaters by any stretch of the imagination, but nothing to be ashamed of either. The buyer picked up a Sherwood 7100 receiver and a Phillips 312 turntable to complete his vintage setup for the office. Talked to him a couple weeks ago and he was real pleased with the overall character of sound.

drgalexo

In this age of disposable everything it's nice to see someone give new life to those speakers, I hope the professor enjoys them for many hours.

gmjungbluth

Those look terrific! Great job!

scottyboy76

Nice work travis, just noticed this post.

TNHNDYMAN

Thanks for the appreciation. Here's a link to another thread I started showing an old beat up end table / record holder that I purchased from an estate sale for cheap. It was ugly but with alot of effort it came out pretty nice.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?138603-End-Table-Refinishing-Project-I-Just-Completed&p=1837642#post1837642