My Vintage Klipsch Speakers ???
MontereyMusicClub
Posts: 7
Hi out there,
I own a pair of vintage Klipsch speakers and I'd like to find out more about them like rarity and value. See link. They're about 4 ft. tall and sound great.
http://montereymusicclub.com/images/klipsch.jpg
Thanks,
gs
I own a pair of vintage Klipsch speakers and I'd like to find out more about them like rarity and value. See link. They're about 4 ft. tall and sound great.
http://montereymusicclub.com/images/klipsch.jpg
Thanks,
gs
Comments
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Welcome to club Polk..
I'm sorry i wasn't aware the Klipsch forum shut down.
Probably going to need more than you gave to help out here. -
They very well could be kit DIY speakers. I think there were more DIY K-horns made back then than there were Klipsch production.
The usual scenario. Grandpa built them when he retired from a magazine article in Popular Science in the 50's. Then dad got them when gramps kicked the bucket. Dad passed them on to junior and the story is they're very expensive audiophile speakers. They're loud as a Who concert and can make you hurt with 30 wpc but I personally have never thought they're "audiophile" by any means as some others do. Just loud and dynamic. -
Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
It would be interesting to see what baffles are inside of the box.
I don't know if it would be possible for you to remove some lag bolts from the back plywood and post some pictures of the innards ?
Any identification anywhere ? Serial #'s ?Sal Palooza -
Man Jesse you're the man i looked and looked last night and couldn't find it.
Why folks doubt you it never ceases to amaze me the stuff you pull out of you hat. -
From what F1nut found, they're not even K-horns. They still look to me like DIY cabinets with too much decorative foo-foo stuck on front to church them up. Then when taken apart, gramps skipped the internal baffles and used EV, Altec, or Jensen PA woofers instead of Klipsch.
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Masterful find. FYI the OP's pic is the same as the first pic in the Klipsch post, just cropped. Same person??
I would have to go with the "Cornscala" guess, or someone put Heresy parts in the University speaker. Although the rear port / horn looks different. -
betting trolling there was two different first posters last night asking off the wall stuff.
This poster made two threads^^
this was the other
http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/176432/broken-cables-where-to-buy#latest
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Damn!
And I thought my K Horns were old! -
Xcapri can't stay away.afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
Attached are 18 pics of my pair of vintage Klipsch speakers. These were definitely made by a cabinet shop, not home made. I'm interested in finding out model, year, rarity and value. They work and sound great. I recently ordered a coil off eBay for one of the horns was bad.
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Welcome? Try the Klipsch forum.
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Welcome? Try the Klipsch forum.
These pictures ARE from the Klipsch forum Dave. Same pictures from the link Jesse posted. -
If they're not bespoke cabinets (in which case they're probably untraceable) they might be third-party cabinets (see comments below). The OP might do well to peruse 1950s catalogs at www.radioshackcatalogs.com and www.alliedcatalogs.com and he (or she) might find them there.
Another good place to look is www.hifilit.com
They're not Klipsch per se, though. In those days, hifi buffs often bought drivers and enclosures separately (or just built their own enclosures, many plans were available). If the enclosures in question weren't home-made or bespoke - they could have been Klipsch licensed and made by Brociner, Cabinart, or other hifi cabinet makers -- even EV sold kits, plans, and enclosures that were "Klipsch-licensed". They look home-made to me; the poor quality of the cutouts and the offcenter mounting of the woofer(s) look like something I'd do. In the post-war/Eisenhower era, the Popular Mechanics culture was widespread in the burgenouing suburbia of the Fifties.
-- like this happy guy, building his Altecs (way better sounding loudspeakers than the Klipsches, BTW)
Since there are two, they're probably not that old -- stereo in home hifi wasn't a "thing" until the late 1950s (and really not until the '60s). Pre-stereo, there are very, very few who would have invested in a pair of real loudspeakers.
-- but, yeah, I don't know why the OP bothered to ask here. If the Klipsch forum isn't turning up what s/he wants (maybe just trolling for someone to buy 'em?), the OP might want to try audiokarma or audioasylum.
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Here's a pdf of 19 pictures of my vintage Klipsch speakers.
I'm looking for information about model, year mfg., rarity and value.
http://montereymusicclub.com/klipsch/klipsch.pdf
Thank you. -
You keep asking the same thing over and over. We don't know! Ask other places. Or are you just a troll?
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In the shape they are in the value is low. My god man clean out that 70y.o. cob webs and dust at a minimum
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It always amuses me why some people on these boards use them to post derogatory remarks to belittle the poster. That my friends is what trolling is. If you don't have anything to contribute but your sniping stay out of the conversation. And no, they're not for sale.
Thanks to the rest of you that posted useful info. -
You amuse me.
Your speaker cabinets have no value, they are homemade. Since you haven't provided any info on the drivers it's impossible to say if they are worth anything and that is where any value would be. However, the value, if any, is not going to be Altec, Tannoy, etc. type money.
Instead of worrying about value, etc. and seeing how you think they sound good why don't you put a lot of time and effort into restoring the cabinets to make them presentable. Don't forget to clean the dust and cobwebs out.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
MontereyMusicClub wrote: »It always amuses me why some people on these boards use them to post derogatory remarks to belittle the poster. That my friends is what trolling is. If you don't have anything to contribute but your sniping stay out of the conversation. And no, they're not for sale.
Thanks to the rest of you that posted useful info.
wrong my post was constructive criticism.
You have had the cabinets apart to show us or others pictures right? Well before I would of snapped any pictures I would of cleaned up the inside for all to get a better idea of what you have. I do see the Klipsch logo on the tweeter and midrange drivers and it looks like you removed the mid driver from the horn in one picture It also would be nice of you to provide info on the woofer or clear pictures of the backside of all three.
All the contacts points look like they need a good cleaning from the years of build up on them. One would be amazed what fresh non oxidized copper and cleaned contact points will do for a speaker.
This is a Polk forum we know a lot about Polk's history and speakers with a splash of other folks stuff our members have had.
To me it would seem prudent to provide the people your asking for info the driver numbers of the product when it come to horn loaded stuff. Klipsch has had many different drivers and cross over components over the years some are worth "some" coin others are not, its just the nature electronics.
I know if these were mine and I was as happy with them as you seem to be , They would not be that dirty plain and simple.
Good day sir! -
You amuse me.
Your speaker cabinets have no value, they are homemade. Since you haven't provided any info on the drivers it's impossible to say if they are worth anything and that is where any value would be. However, the value, if any, is not going to be Altec, Tannoy, etc. type money.
Instead of worrying about value, etc. and seeing how you think they sound good why don't you put a lot of time and effort into restoring the cabinets to make them presentable. Don't forget to clean the dust and cobwebs out.
It's got a pair of EV T35s (Klipsch K77), a pair of (presumably) Klipsch MR horns with, most likely, the Atlas (PA grade) 1" compression drivers (I think Klipsch called them K55) and -- maybe a pair of 15" EV woofers. Klipsch in the early years used various woofers. By the 1970s, they were using commodity woofers, but in the '50s they used decent ones. The XO networks look like they could be Klipsch parts -- if they have Klipsch tags on them, the precise network version might help date them, in fact.
The Klipsch cast aluminum MR horns were all nasty, resonant, shouty things.
But, yeah, not Altec, Tannoy, JBL-grade. Not even close.
Pretty dismal sounding MR drivers and tweeters (as a former Klipsch owner -- now thankfully in remission!); the woofers might be OK -- but we ain't talkin' Altec 515s
The weird thing is that the OP doesn't seem to want to know anything in particular about them(?). I can't imagine why anyone'd be generically curious about them other than "what's it worth", frankly. I mean, the XOs could be spiffed up, maybe some cabinet stiffening -- but otherwise mediocre high-sensitivity loudspeakers. A single-ended 2A3 or 300B amplifier will make them sound about as good as they're capable of sounding.
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Oh, and the L-pads look like they might have cadmium oxide (the thick coat of white powder) on them -- moderately nasty stuff requiring some care while handling.
https://rais.ornl.gov/tox/profiles/cadmium.html -
If the woofers are EV, they "should be" EV 15WK drivers. This is a beefy 15" woofer designed for "Klipsch" (folded backhorn) enclosures. Again, not a 515, but a fairly good woofer. The OP can check eBAY for the going rate; they come up regularly.
Good point on the vintage cobwebs
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Duh, look at picture 3. Samsung.
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Duh, that's the bottom of a Samsung big screen TV sitting on top of the speaker cabinet.
Doh ! -
Samsung woofers -- don't think that Col. Paul Wilbur Klipsch used those.
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I found each one has this Klipsch ID tag on the bottom edge of the elec board assembly.
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send these pictures to Klipsch direct see what they have to say. worth a try anyway.
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Can't be that old. They didn't use hand made nails.
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They look to have been made somewhere in the gap between Fred Flintsone and George Jetson.... if I had to guess, I would go with Scooby Doo.The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson
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