KLH Model Eight (1962)
The KLH Model Eight was Henry Kloss's first radio. It was an FM receiver with a separate acoustic suspension loudspeaker, sold as a "Receiving System" for $159. It's a tube design with seven tubes (types 6U8A, 6BS8, two 6BM8, and three 6AU6A), a transformer-type power supply, and a hand-wired chassis. The receiver has just four controls, left to right: power, treble, volume, and tuning. The speaker connects through a one-piece dual banana plug.
Collectors pass around one detail. The Model Eight speaker's cone came from the Model Six tweeter, but with a very free suspension added for this application. That gives the cone an unusually generous 3/8 inch of travel. It's likely the source of the recurring confusion about the Eight's driver being "just a tweeter." It shares the cone, but it's a different driver. At least one owner has reported finding an Eight speaker with a factory-looking level control, though that appears to be uncommon.
Documentation on the Eight is thin. No detailed specs are recorded anywhere, not frequency response, power output, dimensions or weight, and there's no original price beyond that $159 figure. The period record is enthusiastic but unspecific. Antiqueradio.org, which has handled the unit's instruction manual, puts it simply: "This set produces excellent sound for a radio of its size." It was one of the first all-in-one systems to deliver true high-fidelity sound without compromise.
The Eight sits early in KLH's radio chronology. It and the Model Thirteen preceded the solid-state Model Twenty One of 1965. The "1963" date appears in KLH's own Legendary Products listing, though the manual and most collector sources point to 1962. Working units do surface on eBay with some regularity, and restoration videos exist, but there's no reliable market-price data to report.
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