Dear Friends:

                      I am new to this forum, but I currently sport a pair of Cornwall speakers. I acquired these speakers to use with my low powered SET amplifiers that I personally sell. While the Cornwall speakers work wonderfully well with my equipment, I came across an idea that I thought made perfectly good sense to Klipsch in their quest to service and retain their customer base. I made a call to Keith Claytor at Klipsch. Keith is the Klipsch Press Contact for the company. We spoke for about 20 minutes or so, and I conveyed to him the idea that the company was missing an opportunity to exploit an area of business that would not only be profitable for them, but also a means of retaining much of their customer base by offering the opportunity to restore the cosmetics and perhaps(if necessary)to also restore the electronics to their then current specs. There is no doubt in my mind that there are people out there whom own Klipsch speakers who would love the opportunity to bring their speakers back to their original appearance and performance, and I personally believe that people would pay for the opportunity to do so. It's also good for the U.S Economy! So if there is anyone out there who feels the same way as I do, please let your feelings be felt on this forum. Imagine being the owner of a pair of speakers that have been damaged due to water stains, scratches or chipped corners, and you found out that it's possible to bring them back to their original appearance! In my mind, that's a pretty compelling thought!

Best Regards,

George Lenz

TubesUSA.com

I enjoy doing the restoration myself. Heck of a lot cheaper, and it allowed me to use rather exotic veneers. I doubt if Klipsch would upgrade crossovers. My feeling they would just update.

Interesting idea, I'm afraid it would be very costly.

Hi Ron:

            Yes. I doubt it would be cheap, but it would be a service. As a comparison, Harley Davidson has a program that allows for customers to send their motors in to be thoroughly refurbished. They don't upgrade the pistons, cams or heads and send it back to you. They simply give you back what they originally gave you in the first place( pristine rebuild). As a Harley Owner, I thought this was a pretty good idea. I also know that HD does a great marketing job across the board. Thanks for your opinion!

Best,

George

Thanks Kevin:

                    You are being generous. Lets not forget that you helped make this a seamless transaction as well!

Best,

George

valvesaglowin,

welcome to the forum and congrats on your new CW purchase.

interesting idea for Klipsch to restore to spec. I think it's an idea with merit, though couldn't guess the price relative to new.

It's a nice idea, but I don't think the economics would work out.  Klipsch speakers aren't cheap, but they're not in the price range of a new Harley, plus engines wear out over time and the need for rebuilds is a given.  With Klipsch speakers, it would be mostly caps and cosmetics and the shipping for the big speakers is costly.  Completely refurbishing speaker cabinets and components at the factory to new (original or latest) spec would cost a significant fraction of the new speaker cost with big Heritage speakers and possibly as much as the price of smaller, less expensive, speakers.  It would be more practical to do it at home or buy the new and improved speakers, which nearly everyone seems to agree are better than the old ones.

It's also been pointed out that it would cut into the sales of new speakers.

It would be nice as others have stated but is cost prohibited. First you would have to ship the speakers to hope where the factory is. Next figure the cost of veneer which ranges in price from $2.00 to $20.00 per square foot based on the type of veneer chosen to refinish with. There is 32 square foot per 8x4 sheet. Depending on the model of speaker you are looking at 1-3 sheets per pair, 1 being a pair of cornwalls and 3 being a pair of lascalas. Once the veneer is chosen then you would have to go through and prep the cabinets filling in any holes, squaring up the corners, and fixing dings and dents. Sounds easy enough, but is very time consuming. Then after the veneer is put on you would have the task of sanding and applying the topcoat. I have veneered both lascalas and cornwalls. A pair of cornwalls is fairly easy depending on the initial condition of the cabinets. Figure around 20-30 man hours total. A pair of lascalas takes double that amount of time because of the bass bin and complex cuts.

 The other option would be for klipsch to just fill dings, dents, scratches etc. go over with a topcoat or paint them black. You would still have shipping and labor charges and doing it this way you will not get them back to there original appearance. Last time I checked klipsch gets all there panels already preveneered and cuts and puts the panels together for the cabinets.

The best bet for any forum klipsch owner is to take the time and learn how to do it themselves, excellent results are achievable through time, practice,and patience. There are plenty of forum members on here who have done it themselves that are more than willing to 

help with pointers and tips. Some will even do the veneering for owners for a nominal fee.   

There's a guy down the road from me that runs a small business out of his home workshop restoring furniture and building cabinetry from scratch.  He's an artist in wood, fast, and his rates are very reasonable ($25/hour).  I took a pair of black Forte IIs to him that were in pretty bad shape on the outside.  He stripped off the paint and refinished the damaged oak veneer that was underneath.  They look  like new now.  One of the passive woofers had some punctures courtesy of the previous owners cat.  I called Jamac in Portland, Oregon (they've been repairing speakers for about 50 years) and they said to just use some white glue to fill the punctures, which worked fine.  The crossover networks are fairly simple and I would think restoration of those would be a good DIY project.  There are several folks on this forum that specialize in that, too.

The freight costs to ship heavy speakers are high and I would worry about additional damage that could result along the way.  So I would suggest finding some local craftsmen that have the skills.   

Oldwiz:

BTW, here's a photo of the restored Forte II's in my home office.  I have them hooked up to a mid 1960's vintage Fisher tube amp and tube tuner.  Craig Ostby of NOS Valves restored both of them for me and they sound sweet.  That's  a Panasonic portable CD player on top.  Right now I'm listening to Diana Krall "The Look of Love".  I listen to her voice for awhile and I get to thinking....Yes, I'd definitely rob a bank for this babe!

"Rob a bank for this babe!"  Well, that sure beats "you complete me" or "you make me want to be a better man".  However, take a listen to Lee Aaron and see if you don't lose it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LRN_Qmtn9AM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=k0zl6U3okkI&mode=related&search=

and one from 1989, when she was the Metal Queen: 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=y6j4Is3lVVI&mode=related&search=

Lee played a date here in Victoria with her jazz band in 2004 and she was really good.  I'm hoping she comes back soon.

Klipsch could sell restoration kits for their heritage line without cannibalizing sales.

My 2¢.

Guriboy:

If you live in California and wanted to restore a pair of KHorns, crating and shipping to AK and back would be about a grand. No thanks.

Klipsch could sell restoration kits for their heritage line without cannibalizing sales.

My 2¢.