WAD KLS3 Mk3 Millennium

[Greg.]

This is relevant in the WD Speaker section of the forum because although the KLS3 speakers were WAD kits, this post relates to what Peter Comeau did with this speaker when proprietor of World Designs being the name change he used after he bought World Audio Design.

I have owned and continually used (because I built them correctly and tuned them to perform properly, unlike many others who then discharged them for low value on eBay) WAD KLS3 speakers ever since they were introduced by HiFi World as a kit in their DIY Suppliment back in the mid 90’s. For many years I used the original KLS3 Mk1 version but recently introduced the Mk2 crossover with a design change to accommodate the original Mk1 Audax TW025M1 tweeter to replacie the commonly failing Audax Gold HD-3P unit.
See http://www.world-designs.co.uk/forum...ead.php?t=7414

In June 2008, HFW published an article by Peter Comeau where he took member here Guy Pettigrew’s KLS3 Mk2 Gold speakers in for repair and upgrade to replace the failed Audax gold dome tweeters with the Seas T25CF002 ‘Millennium’ tweeters. The failure of the Audax unit is universally common. No replacements are available.

My son who I originally built Mk2 Golds for, passed them back to me with failed tweeters. He no longer needed them anyway, so I had the option to repair and upgrade them.

Having owned for a short while, a pair of WD25T speakers, with Millennium tweeter, I was so conscious of the sound benefits this tweeter brings. Yes, it is expensive (currently around £225 per unit) but worth it IMHO. So I bit the bullet and went for them to upgrade this second pair of KLS3’s.

These speaker cabinets had bevelled edges and therefore there was insufficient space to accommodate the additional 10mm of the Seas tweeter face plate. Don’t be conned by the picture in Peter’s original article. This has been photoshopped and is not proportional or real. Guy’s speakers could accommodate because they did not have bevelled edges. Anyway, I found a way around this by cutting off four perpendicular 5mm crescents from the faceplate. Thank you Geoff (pager8) for your engineering help. The faceplate torque screws were easily removed and the resulting conversion produced a faceplate of a very similar design to the partnering Audax drive units. Win, win!

My friend, Nigel (vinylspinner) helped me out with the cabinet rebating. Note the filled original mounting holes and the new ones drilled for simple screw fixing.

[Greg.]

Cont...


All now fitted.

These speakers originally had the large rear ports. As I need to have them placed close to a rear wall, I have blanked these off. I converted to the original front firing twin ports which I have left at their manufactured 110mm length (previously cut down to 85mm). This brings more extended bass and does not (in my case) excite room modes. Overall, deep bass sound is much improved and actually further extended.

I am so satisfied with the speaker performance I now have, I can’t see any reason to change it. I expect to live with them now for a very long time. They are so good, it might just be my very last speaker upgrade.

[Richard]

Cont...


Last picture! (Thread edited to include pictures lost from tiny pic hosting.)



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Great job and nice write up Greg (and friends!). Very satisfying when it turns out so well

[Chris]

You see it too often when people give up and keep buying new kit, I had my Kls 10's in the garage for 8 years after the original tweeters gave up. The new Seas T25CF002 tweeters brought them back to life.

When time permits I will replace the capacitors with mundorf silver and rewire with the same speaker cable am now using (Van den Hul) revelation, I have already put them from tag board in the Wad 6550 to the back of the speaker terminals, a huge jump in performance from such a simple tweak.

The Audax drivers are top class, there are many limiting factors but the drivers are not among them. Some felt on the front of the baffle may be another useful tweak to reduce diffraction.

http://www.speakerdesign.net/audioXp...ffraction.html

Am glad to see Greg optimising the performance from a great sounding speaker, it takes a lot of bottle to cut up an expensive tweeter, the face plate then has to be put back with equal amounts of torque.

Chris.

[pager8]

Looking very nice Greg, I am so glad it all worked out.
Would love to have a listen sometime

[Greg.]

You’ll be very welcome. Give me a shout on when you’d like to come over. I’m pretty free for the next two weeks.