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KLH MODEL NINE ELECTROSTATIC SPEAKERS.

Hello, i recently acquired 2 pairs of these speakers and they are 16 ohm.
My question is, if i run these with one power amp (Krell Ksa-80)and run two pairs of speaker cables (2 for left/2 for right) would this bring the ohms down to 8 ohm?
Also do i need to run the second set of speaker cables directly back from the amp to speaker or can i jump a short pair of cables from speaker to speaker?
My plan is too run all 4 speakers with one amp for now as i just want to hear how they sound.
First though i need to make up some power cords as they did not come with any!
Thanks in Advance!
x1884

Showing 2 responses by whart

whart's avatar
whart
3,128 posts
 
You may want to reach out to Janszen, whose father designed the 9. His company, in Ohio, offers restoration services, and he may have some tips on how to check and bring a pair back into service to avoid problems.
They were glorious speakers in their day- I fondly remember double pairs being driven by Marantz tube amps back in the late 60's. FWIW, there are a couple of owners on this forum who may chime in with other tips based on their actual experience in owning and running them. I still have multiple pairs of Quads, but would be reluctant to press the old pair back in to service without having them thoroughly gone over first.

Here is the link to janszen:

http://www.janszenloudspeaker.com/JansZen%20-%20KLH%20Nine%20Refurb%20&%20Upgrade%2090202.pdf
whart's avatar
whart
3,128 posts
 
My suggestion above also concerned the relationship between the speakers and the amp; electrostats have some pretty extreme impedance dips (at least the older Quads did) and present a difficult load for some amps. So, apart from the fact that the KLH9 would probably sound better with the right tube amp, I would just make sure that your Krell can deal with the load the speaker presents.
Good luck.
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