Found a pair of these in my basement:

[g859]

Found these in my basement and thought they would be useful serving as my left and right speakers.

What do you all think?

http://www.hifi-wiki.de/images/8/84/Kl-7070d_2_red.jpg

Kenwood KL-888D's a.k.a KL-7070D's

Specs:

• Design: 5-way / 6 speaker / bass reflex
• Chassis:
• Tieton: 40.6 cm cone
• Mid: 16cm cone
• Central High: Horn
• Tweeter: 2x Horn
• Superhochton: 3cm cone
• Power rating (Nenn-/Musikb.): 150W max
• Efficiency: 98dB/W/m
• Frequency response: 20-22000Hz
• Transition Areas: 700/2000/5000/10000Hz
• Impedance: 8 ohms

I'm using a pair of cheap Insignias so I'm pretty sure that these will be much, much better.

Thanks

[CasualKiller]

Man, I love the vintage stuff, nice score.

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by CasualKiller

Man, I love the vintage stuff, nice score.

Found these in my basement ~ I would have never forgot they were there lol !
Nice FIND !!

[got rice]

Run with them and don't look back.

Just curious what does that knob do, the one above the woofer to the right?

[g859]

I think it increases frequency response.

[Blu-Raider]

Originally Posted by got rice

Just curious what does that knob do, the one above the woofer to the right?

Adjustable crossover?

[Big Daddy]

Those look like the typical Japanese speaker designs of 1970's. I remember the kick-ass Sansui speakers that looked pretty much the same. I have a feeling that one company made all of them and put different labels on them.

If they are in good shape, they will outplay many new speakers. If the drivers need to be replaced, check Parts Express.

Many speakers in late 1970s had knobs or toggle switches on them. They worked like Bass, Midrange, and Treble controls similar to knobs on receivers. I had a pair of large Koss speakers with three switches. You could leave them flat or boost a range of frequencies.

Vintage Sansui Speakers:
http://www.sansui.us/SP_3Digits.htm
http://www.sansui.us/SP_4Digits.htm
http://www.sansui.us/SP_XSeries.htm
http://www.sansui.us/SP_Later.htm

[g859]

As far as I know, they are in mint condition except for one or two broken spindles on the grille. I saw them selling for $200 some places so I guess they are still pretty good. The 16" sub is pretty impressive if you ask me

[Blu-Dog]

Originally Posted by g859

As far as I know, they are in mint condition except for one or two broken spindles on the grille. I saw them selling for $200 some places so I guess they are still pretty good. The 16" sub is pretty impressive if you ask me

It's not a sub...it's a woofer. It really doesn't go all that deep, maybe 50-6-Hz...but it does that very, very well.

[Blu-Dog]

Originally Posted by Big Daddy

Those look like the typical Japanese speaker designs of 1970's. I remember the kick-ass Sansui speakers that looked pretty much the same. I have a feeling that one company made all of them and put different labels on them.

I smoked two sets of Sansui's before I threw in the towel. They sounded so very, very nice, but they just weren't power handlers. Drove them with the Pioneer SX-1010, a true 100watt receiver, and it just didn't work out.

Most of my buddies were using Kenwood and Marantz receivers, 60-80 watts RMS (as advertised, anyway), and had no issues. Truly remarkable sound.

They looked a lot different from the Kenwood speakers (not the cabinets, but the drivers) though they sounded pretty much the same.

[Blu-Dog]

Originally Posted by Blu-Raider

Adjustable crossover?

Pretty much just an attenuator for the tweeter. Like a volume control. Back in the day, some folks liked the mellow, plush sound, and didn't like a lot of high end - at that time, tweeters and mids were fairly new, most high end audio was single speaker, full range setups driven by tube amps.

So some folks didn't want to hear "bright" - they saw it as "harsh". Thus, the knobs.

[Blu-Dog]

Originally Posted by g859

Found these in my basement and thought they would be useful serving as my left and right speakers.

What do you all think?

Be careful how hard you push them. Don't rely on the power ratiing of 150 watts - they can't take that kind of juice. Even a 150W spike could blow them.

As I recall (and it's been three decades since I've seen the guts of one) they didn't use true crossovers on dircuit boards like we see now. They're internally wired with resistors and capacitors going to each speaker. These components can blow just like the speaker can - be careful, don't push them too hard.

It's tempting - they do sound sweet - but just be careful.

[CasualKiller]

Originally Posted by Blu-Dog

It's not a sub...it's a woofer. It really doesn't go all that deep, maybe 50-6-Hz...but it does that very, very well.

Not according to the specs listed.

# Frequency response: 20-22000Hz

[zedd_117]

My only question is: How do you find something like these in your basement?! Did you just move in and the original owners left them behind? If so nice score! Or did you have them years ago, put them in storage and forgot about them? You must have one massive basement sir!
If it were me I'd try them out as my fronts, remembering not to drive them too hard at first. They've prolly been setting for a while and some things may be dusty, dry-rotted, damaged, who knows. Or you could pop in Transformers, crank up the volume, and see what they can do!

I look in my basement and all I find is spiders.

[Sammy]

Originally Posted by zedd_117

I look in my basement and all I find is spiders.

[Blu-Dog]

Originally Posted by CasualKiller

Not according to the specs listed.

They won't really deliver that low. Back in the day, specs were pretty optimistic, and they'd simply graph what each component could do (in theory).

Once they plugged in the rudimentary crossover setup, that pretty much went out the window. On these types of speaker, the bass was split out with a simple coil - which soaked up power, and attenuated the lower frequencies.

Same with the tweeters. The knob attenuated the sound to the tweeters, and even when cranked to the max, cut out some sound.

The only way to assure yourself of getting some bass was to get the biggest bass woofer you could - and hope that your power source could overcome the limitations. Rolloff was pretty loose between the speakers, and if you did have enough power to drive the woofer to audible levels in that range, it would probably blow the woofer or the coil - I did it enough times to regret it, believe me.

Don't get me wrong - even at 50-60 Hz, you can get very decent bass - but below that, it's pretty much inaudible.

[Sammy]

Originally Posted by Blu-Dog

Don't get me wrong - even at 50-60 Hz, you can get very decent bass - but below that, it's pretty much inaudible.

Below that, you can still feel it!

[Blu-Dog]

Originally Posted by Sammy

Below that, you can still feel it!

Dude, I flamed out FOUR speakers very similar to this, feeling it!

The culprits: Aerosmith's "Walk This Way", Blue Oyster Cult's "Flaming Telepath" (I believe it was the Secret Treaties album), Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You Falletinme Be My Self Again", and the last one smoked hard on the Band of Gypsies album. Not sure which song.

My buddy said it blew on "Who Knows" but I didn't smell the nasty burning until halfway through "Power Of Love".

They really do crank, but by the time you feel it, bones are breaking inside your speakers. The problem is, there is a very fine line there...

[Canada]

Well I listened to my Sony speakers for 3 years while a pair of Boston A-100 were about 3 meters from my room.

I thought my Sony speakers sounded fine until I listened to some 685's, I was rocking the Boston A-100 2ch in no time.