Very clean bass, full bodied but not fat sound compared to modern speakers, well balanced sound, good imaging, well-designed and built to last.

The bass is so good down to 40hz it makes you want the rest of it. Lacks crystalline highs of a good modern system. Big sound with good imaging for its size but not equal to the better mini-monitors. Not as detailed as AR2ax but smoother. Sound is not as loose and funky as old EMIs or Bozaks.

I own several small 2-way speakers of more recent vintage. Bought these relatively huge Model Sixes for a hundred bucks on Ebay out of nostalgia --when I was a kid they were the speaker to have. They still impress, and are a safe used buy because unlike Advents Henry Kloss built them to last (cost constraints.) They use cloth surrounds instead of rot-away foam, and the 3 position tone contour switch works perfectly after 30 - 40 years, unlike old ARs with their scratchy/dead pots. The crossover uses a paper and oil capacitor (priced those lately?) The sound is smooth and balanced with clean and very extended bass and a full-bodied lower midrange/upper bass that puts most modern speakers to shame. The sound on strings and low pitched woodwinds is a real treat after listing to modern audiophile stand-mounts, which lean out below middle C. Bass clarinet sounds good enough to bite into, and you can hear the true timbres of the lower strings, even low notes from acoustic guitar. The string tone is better than my Celestion 700s, though I think the AR2ax has an even better string tone, and more stable imaging, too, but the AR2axs are more colored, have a certain nasality that announces itself from time to time, and the bass is not quite as deep and clean as the KLH. (Yeah, I bought an old pair of 2ax'es as well -- dueling 60s classics!) I find myself toggling the contour switch depending on what I am listening to. The sound can be border on dull, even with the contour switched for max highs, if your ears are habituated to modern metal dome tweeters and the like. On some music this is a problem, but on most music I find the highs acceptably crisp and quite smooth and euphonic. Also there is the fast transient attack that the previous reviewer alluded to. I have them set up about a foot off the floor and a bit out from the wall. There is surprising depth on some recordings, and a good sense of power. They are very listenable, the speaker equivalent of an old pair of loafers. Sound good on just about any good music, and there is very little music on which they sound clearly inadequate. They do have a slightly restrained, overdamped quality like other "New England Sound" speakers of the day, but you may not notice unless you compare them to good horns or large-ish ported systems. In their day I found systems from Bozak and EMI to have a livelier, more animated sound than either KLH or AR models, but less neutral. I hope to repeat this test someday when I get the space and money to buy some old Bozaks. In the meanwhile, a used pair of Sixes are a great budget alternative to the small cheap 2 ways carried in stores -- the bass is much better and the rest of the range is likely to be better as well, if less extroverted. These are speakers for grown-ups.

Similar Products Used:

Scott S-3, EPI 110, Original Advent, AR3, various modern speakers.

A sealed two way bookshelf size speaker system about 25 in X 14 in. X 14 in deep. avalable in oiled walnut, lacquered walnut, unfinished birch, and (yecccchh!) maroonish colored mahagony. It had a 12" woofer with fabric suspension (a la AR-3 except 8 ohms not 4 ohm like the classic AR, and a rather mundane 3 " paper cone tweeter. The woofer is the best part of this system. it is a really well made alnico V 12 incher with verrrry low 13-15 HZ free air resonance in a very well made 3/4" plywood box with fine wood veneers. The woofer produce nice undistorted fundamental frequecies down to 35-38HZ and works well with amplifiers in the 35-75 watt per channel range. The tweeter doesn't really do anything much above 10-11KHZ mainly due to its fairly large size which severely limits its top end response. KLH probably didn't have much choice with this woofer. As good as the woofer is iut really doesn't doo anything much above 700 HZ. Even this ralther large tweeter has trouble getting down to an octave below that pooint ot afford smooth crossover. This system however has really nice potential with another hole for a tiny i" dia. supper tweeter. Tiny super tweeters like that were not generally available on the open market then, (1962) but, of course they are now. This would be a really nice little hop-up project for someone on a very limited budget and with a little time and trouble. It competed fairly well with the very early two way AR2 (about $100.00 back then) but the 3 way AR-2A of the same era was a better performer in some areas of smoothness and so-forth but the extreme bottom end was a a tad better and more extended than the AR-2A with it's 10" acoustic suspension woofer. They had a really nice nubby texture off white natural fiber grill fabric sort of like what used to be found on the top end JBL Hartsfield model. Four of these, (two in parallel at 4 OHMS on each channel) was a very nice combination if you kept them more than 20-40 inches apart to prevent mutual coupling. Sensitivity of 88 db at one meter typical of acoustic suspension designs. By far their most successful product in the market in the early to mid 60's. This would be a really nice alternative to the typical vinyl/melamine modern dog-house speaker system. Especially if you could find them in a garage sale or estate sale cheap and then add a super tweeter from you favorite supplier and a 2.3 mfd capacitor in series (cheap at about $ 1-2.00 ea. at radio shack)to creat a simple 6 db/ocatave 8-10 KHZ, 8 ohm crossover to keep midrange and bass out of the super tweeter). Has a 3 position switch on the back to control existing tweeter level. (norm, decrease and increase position). In those days KLH actually manufactured their own drivers. The had their own paper pulping machines and used screens shaped like cones to blow the pulp onto and form their own cones. They had a coil winding shop and a machine shop to make woofer and tweeter frames as well as nice cabinet shop. The manufacturer still exists but I have no idea whether the still make their own cones or not nor do I know who owns the comany now. in the late 50's and early sixties the general knoedge about this co. was that Henry Kloss (of later Advent fame and some others had formed this small co. in the late 50's as a direct competitor for Acoustic Research.) A really nice amplifier for this unit is the Dynaco stereo 70, 35w /35w, power amp running from your favorite preamp. If you listen to the first Advent speaker ever produced back (also designed by Henry Kloss back) in 1970, you will notice some vague similarities although the larger Advent from that period is a far better performing system overall. But best of all, chances are if you do find one, the woofer with its fabric suspension will probably be in excellent condition with NO rotting edge suspensions as in later 70's-90's designs with the gray urethane crap.

Incredible sound!! No matter the program material, the sound just flows out smooth! Voices, horns, and strings really bring out the genius behind the Six's simple Kloss design. True sub-40Hz response with little muddling, and smooth roll-off of the highs above the normal human's audible range. The build quality of the cabinetry is first rate all around! The thick walnut-ply panels used in my first generation units are SOLID!! You could use these as jack-stands for a large car with no problem. Don't do that, as the finish is just too nice for that!! Beautiful oiled walnut finish on all sides looks just as nice today, kept up with an occasional conditioning. The drivers are the real highlight! Both the woofer and tweeter were designed and constructed at the old KLH factory in Cambridge(not shopped-out). They were conceived for this specific design, and utilized the highest grade materials available at the time. The woofer was made using wool, wood pulp, cotton, and many other materials bonded together. The surround material is a woven fabric permeated with liquid butyl rubber, making it almost impervious to time and the corrosive elements. No foam anywhere on these babies! The tweeter received as much care in their construction, and with its "mini" butyl surround, can move up to 1/16" if needed for certain mid-frequency signals. The crossover is a simple but solid unit with reliable oil-filled caps, large coil, and reliable three-position high frequency response tailoring switch. No unreliable/unsyncable pots to mess with, unlike so many other speakers I've seen. Brushed metal nomenclature back plate, w/solid screw-down terminals for speaker wire lug connection also. Topping it all off, a nice classic off-white grill cloth w/stamped metal screw-in KLH logos.

I'm sure there must be something. Okay, it may not be the optimum "cranking" speaker for rock & roll. I think that's what Cerwin-Vega is in business for. I use them for listening to my progressive rock music with no problems to report.

Overall, vintage KLH Model Sixes are an incredible value in the current marketplace, especially with today's "me-too" mentality of buying bigger-is-better, home theatre, hi-wattage claim, China-made drivers bolted into flimsy particle board junk cabinets, and sold at Circuit City!! Now that's a run-on sentence!! I don't care what name is on the logo anymore, as that is almost a moot point these days(including late KLH)!! I have always wanted a pair since the late 70's, when I listened to my best friend's Dad's Model 6's!! I never forgot their sound! I finally got my chance, and lucked-out in acquiring mine MINT from the original owner for only $100 for the pair. He bought them in 1966, but had to give them up in 2000 due to hearing loss. A 120 mile drive to get them was my only penalty. If you can find a decent condition pair for around $300 or less, I would call it a real bargain!! You might find some on Eboy, but be careful, as speaker descriptions may be far from the truth, as a friend of mine found out! Best to see them in person if at all possible. A vintage hi-fi reseller near me still wants $599 for his pair!! That's way more than the original cost in the sixties of around $130 each for these! I can't imagine how much it would cost today to manufacture a speaker of this caliber!!? These may still be one of the best kept secrets in vintage hi-fi. Join the club and see what you're missing!! :)

Similar Products Used:

Numerous speakers owned so far(since 1977): old Utah 3-way speaker, Pioneer HPM 40s and 100s, AR 18s, Magnepan (unknown model #), ESS ES-620 mini-monitor.

accuracy and tonal balance

deep bass,power handling capacity

the previous review got a some things right but he got a lot wrong too. i've had these speakers for 36 years and while i own and listen to many others, i still come back to these as one of the best sounding and best values i ever saw. they were a benchmark of accuracy, value, and quality in their day. their sound was nearly perfectly balanced and very clear as the result of a great deal of care taken by the manufacturer. they didn't quite match the low bass of the twice as expensive ar3 (one of their chief competitors) but they beat the pants off it and every other ar speaker of its day (and advent too) from there on up. they were one of the most successful speakers ever marketed being made from 1958 to 1972. they didn't have any cheap crummy paper cone tweeter as the other reviewer said but a hard shell-like cone tweeter that was quite remarkable for its long excursion capability and liniarity. it crosse over at 1000 hz. lab tests showed that their transient response was nearly perfect and their high frequency dispersion was excellent. overall frequency response was amazingly flat. there was also a great deal of manufacturing consistancy from unit to unit. these speakers are not good for loud rock. they will play fairly loudly and are rated to handle 40 watts. they are wonderful for classical, pop, folk, show, and other non deafening sound. although they are long forgotten, they did and still do give a lot of listening enjoyment. mine were among the early production runs and had the woofer epoxy cast into the front baffle board. later versions had them screwed in. mine were repaired several times and klh was great about it. (because of the way they were made, klh had to remove the woofer cones to repair the crossover networks and then recone them.) even though i bought them used, klh, sent free shipping boxes, and even paid the freight one way and once didn't even charge for repairs. try to find somebody willing to do that today. if you see a pair somewhere, buy them, they will probably cost next to nothing. klh 17 was similar having the same tweeter and a 10 inch woofer, and was a great value too. the best things can and do last a lifetime with reasonable care.

Similar Products Used:

klh5, ar3