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K-horn / Girlfriend update


stimpy451

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Spent all day Saturday carefully taking the K-horns apart and getting out of the girlfriend's basement. Took the tops and side grills off and carefully wrapped each component in a blanket. I work for a mobility company, so I borrowed a van with a wheelchair lift to make things a little easier. Had to move them myself, so the 14 steps out of the basement were murder with a handtruck. Gave her mom $400 and took the K-horns, 1 Cornwall II, Marantz 15, 14, Sony turntable with Shure SMG and a handful of jazz records.

I left my digital camera at work, so I'll have to post pix tomorrow. I've got them set up in my living room about 12' apart. Not the best, but those are the only true corners I have to work with. I set up my Marantz 140, flatlined the EQ on the preamp, put in the Who's "Tommy" CD and let it rip. I about pooped myself.

I have always had a Soundcraftsmen EQ in the loop, but it's almost uneeded now if it weren't for some crappier recordings. I really can't describe how good the K-horns sound. I expected to be confronted by the harshness of the squawkers, but it's not that evident. There's enough there that I would consider building the ALK kit. But other than that...flawless and tight.

Played a few more choice CDs - "Carmina Burana" being one, and was floored at the wall of sound and definition. I moved around quite a bit and did notice that these definitely have a sweet spot when compared to non-horn speakers. That takes some getting used to - you can literally walk around the room with your eyes closed and hear drastic level changes. My room layout isn't so hot either....

So I decided to piece the taken-apart Marantz 15 together for test run. Bad idea - I had it running for a few minutes and it was throwing some 60 cycle hum, then all of a sudden the peak lamp on the left amp lit and the left K-horn started crackling. I unplugged it but had a good scare. Need to rebuild the 15.

The wood on the K-horns is walnut . They soaked up about half a bottle of lemon oil. whooo. Still having trouble getting mysterious moldy spots off - they seem to come off by scratching with a fingernail, but there are so many of them....

P.

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0000 steel wool (the finest grade you can find at the hardware store) will more than likely remove the crap that you can scrape off with your fingernail. Go ahead and use the lemon oil stuff you are currently using if you'd like--but there are better products.

And by the way, WHAT A SCORE!

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You might want to start with Murphy's wood soap. I would suggest not using steel wool, so you don't have to worry about the metal particles getting in around the magnets.

You can get something like the Scotchbrite pads, so they are totaly synthetic and scrub with them (always with the grain).

Once they are clean and dry again, there are different products you can use. Many here would recommend boiled linseed oil. Wipe on, let set for a little while and wipe off the excess. The big caution is that the rags are HIGHLY dangerous. They will self combust if left in a pile. If you do this, put the rags a a pan full of water and submerge them. Once they are messy like that, you can throw them into a dumpster (maybe put the rags into a big ziplock bag with water and throw that out. The BLO will give them a nice deep rich glow.

Some will use Watco Danish Oil, a similar product but it contains other oils as well. Or Tung oil, which dries to a harder finish and doesn't breath as much.

Marvel

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stimpy, make sure those Khorns have an oil finish before going any further with any treatments. An oiled walnut model will have the suffix -WO. If yours have a suffix of -WL, do NOT apply any oil treatments, as this will soften the lacquer finish.

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