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Free 1975 klipshorns


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My shop is near a restaurant that has been closed for about five years or so and now the property has changed hands. The new owners know I'm somewhat of a half assed audio buff and offered up the sound system components to me. I now am the proud owner of 1975 Klipschorns, in great shape, and working order I am assuming. Are there any precautions I should take, or do, before firing them up remembering they've been sitting quite some time? 

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congrats!  pics or it didnt happen  :)

 

aside from a visual inspection of the x-overs to be sure no leaking capacitors & that all wires are connected right... you can just hook them up to a known good amp/receiver & play them. give them a little volume & see how they sound, k-horns are pretty bullet proof & they should work fine if they were working when last played.  you can verify the mids & tweets are all working by covering the mid with a magazine or even your hand & put your ear up close to the tweet, then cover the tweet & listen to the mid, should be very easy to tell if they are all working.  from there i would listen to them for awhile & decide if you like the sound & if everything is up to par.  then you can decide on refreshing the x-overs or upgrading other parts.  

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I would play them with a known good stereo receiver or integrate amp, etc and start at low volumes. Make sure the drivers are all working properly. Get it to a normal listening volume and listen. I usually put the receiver in mono mode so left and right speakers have the same exact signal, they I compare left vs right. If everything sounds the same, enjoy. If not, look into recapping your crossovers or perhaps buying new ones. 

 

Congrats! 

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1 hour ago, 1sixstringer said:

Are there any precautions I should take, or do, before firing them up remembering they've been sitting quite some time? 

There is nothing that needs done to the speakers.  Use your common sense and don't turn the volume up to 11 and you should be fine.

 

@WillyBob asked a good question about the amp ^^^.  You do want to be careful about firing up an old amp because if it has problems it could fry both the amp and the speakers.

+++

 

EDIT:  I saw @dtr20 had the same concern as the rest of us and spelled out the "common sense" I was referring to.

 

Once you get your LS's  Khorns up and running please post some pictures and we can offer suggestions on upgrading/updating some components known to need some TLC after 40 years. 

 

FYI assuming all the speaker drivers work and the Horns are in good shape, your friends gave you a gift worth about $1250 $2000 which will still play great today.  Congrats, and welcome to the Klipsch forums!

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6 minutes ago, wvu80 said:

Once you get your LS's up and running please post some pictures and we can offer suggestions on upgrading/updating some components known to need some TLC after 40 years. 

 

FYI assuming all the speaker drivers work and the LS is in good shape, your friends gave you a gift worth about $1250 which will still play great today.  Congrats, and welcome to the Klipsch forums!

They were free klipschorns, keep up Dave!  :D

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8 minutes ago, wvu80 said:

There is nothing that needs done to the speakers.  Use your common sense and don't turn the volume up to 11 and you should be fine.

 

@WillyBob asked a good question about the amp ^^^.  You do want to be careful about firing up an old amp because if it has problems it could fry both the amp and the speakers.

+++

 

EDIT:  I saw @dtr20 had the same concern as the rest of us and spelled out the "common sense" I was referring to.

 

Once you get your LS's up and running please post some pictures and we can offer suggestions on upgrading/updating some components known to need some TLC after 40 years. 

 

FYI assuming all the speaker drivers work and the LS is in good shape, your friends gave you a gift worth about $1250 which will still play great today.  Congrats, and welcome to the Klipsch forums!

LS?  Pretty sure the title says....Khorns..

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1 hour ago, 1sixstringer said:

My shop is near a restaurant that has been closed for about five years or so and now the property has changed hands. The new owners know I'm somewhat of a half assed audio buff and offered up the sound system components to me. I now am the proud owner of 1975 Klipschorns, in great shape, and working order I am assuming. Are there any precautions I should take, or do, before firing them up remembering they've been sitting quite some time? 

Take a screwdriver and loosen, then tighten all of the screws on the connections of the crossovers.  Blow out any dust and debris, vacuum the grills, check all the wires.  Post a bunch of photos here.  Enjoy.

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2 minutes ago, wvu80 said:

K horns K horns K horns! 

 

Good morning, everyone.  :rolleyes:

 

OK, they are worth $2000.  So sue me.  :P

Dave, cmon.  You have put a price on them without even seeing the actual model, veneer, components, serial numbers?  

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Just now, jimjimbo said:

Dave, cmon.  You have put a price on them without even seeing the actual model, veneer, components, serial numbers?  

I didn't put a firm price on them, I qualified my response. 

 

Working Khorns from that era in good shape are ON AVERAGE worth in the neighborhood of $2,000 based on the 40 sales I have tracked over two years time.

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1 hour ago, 1sixstringer said:

My shop is near a restaurant that has been closed for about five years or so and now the property has changed hands. The new owners know I'm somewhat of a half assed audio buff and offered up the sound system components to me. I now am the proud owner of 1975 Klipschorns, in great shape, and working order I am assuming. Are there any precautions I should take, or do, before firing them up remembering they've been sitting quite some time? 

Play them - any issues will reveal themselves

I doubt you will have any if they were working and then just shut down and allowed to sit

May have to clean things up a bit but otherwise you should be good to go

Don't blast them right at first to give the woofer and the diaphragms a chance to wake/limber up - an hour or so at moderate volume

While playing at sane volume levels listen for anything that sounds obviously unhappy - you'll know it when you hear it

Congratulations for your good fortune

Craig

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The wires on the crossovers definitely need attention, although looking original. It does look as though they wired up their entire sound system with wire you wouldn't trust to tie up old newspapers. To answer a question, I got a Onkyo A-7090 amp in the deal too... very happy on my end. I'll try to post some pics tomorrow or later tonight

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33 minutes ago, 1sixstringer said:

The wires on the crossovers definitely need attention, although looking original. It does look as though they wired up their entire sound system with wire you wouldn't trust to tie up old newspapers. To answer a question, I got a Onkyo A-7090 amp in the deal too... very happy on my end. I'll try to post some pics tomorrow or later tonight

That is an extremely good amp - one of the better integrateds Onyko ever built and fairly unusual to find

If it's been sitting unused for years, I'd bring it up slowly, use a dim bulb at least

It is also an amp worth servicing - it's a keeper - but it's also a fairly complicated amp - so again, bring it on line easy

Nicest thing about it's architecture is it used a lot of modular executions on the chassis rather than the typical single (or two) ginormous boards with everything crammed onto it typical of the time

Sort of a throw back to the '70s in good quality, especially for an amp that came out at the dawn of the black plastic crap period

You got some nice stuff

Craig

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10 minutes ago, muel said:

I see no one has accepted your offer of free K Horns so I will... where do I pick them up?

He said he got them for free, along with a nice amp.  I think he will want at least a couple hundred for them. 

 

Being that you're such a nice guy, it's the least you can do.  B)

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