Do Your Speakers have LEVEL CONTROLS or EQUALIZERS? (Vintage or Modern) ???


Do Your Speakers have LEVEL CONTROLS or EQUALIZERS? (Vintage or Modern)

MANY Vintage Speakers had/have Level Controls, and a few big speaker arrays had external equalizers.

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Many of you know It’s my contention ALL SPEAKERS should have Level Controls, to refine their frequency distribution in your space at your positioning in that space, and re-adjust for any space you move/use them in.

L-Pads retain impedance shown to the crossover; Potentiometers alter what is shown to the crossover a bit.

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Just stumbled about these

2 Altec Lansing speaker crossovers N800-8K

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313970394857

 

 

JBL’s

Bose 901

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My Uncle’s 1958 Fisher President II (Large 3 way, horns and big woofer) had/have 2 L-Pad level controls

 

AT-37’s used in many of their consoles and separates.

https://products.electrovoice.com/binary/AT37%20and%20AT38%20EDS.pdf

PRESENCE: for Mid-Range Horn’s Volume Control, relative to he 15" woofer with no control

BRILLIANCE: for Tweeter’s Horn’s Volume Control, relative to the mid-range.

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My AR-2ax (compact 3 way cones) had/have 2 Level Controls

I just restored 2 pairs for my Office and Garage/Shop Systems

https://www.audiogon.com/systems/10092

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MANY Vintage Speakers had/have Level Controls, and a few big speaker arrays had external equalizers.

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Do Your Speakers have LEVEL CONTROLS or EQUALIZERS? (Vintage or Modern)

 

 

elliottbnewcombjr

Showing 2 responses by atmasphere

Their literature is clear: to adjust for 'live/hard' rooms, or 'soft/dead' rooms (of various degrees of soft or hard of course); for various locations in a space; for an individual's preference.

@elliottbnewcombjr Yes, I'm sure the document said that; it would have been a bit of a task to get the user to understand that the correct setting is an interaction with the output impedance of the amplifier.

You'll notice that by the mid 1970s these controls had all but vanished. Electro Voice and MacIntosh led the way pushing for the speaker to be 'voltage driven'. That eliminated the need for the controls. 

The Patrician was an amazing speaker. Thanks for the photos.

 

@elliottbnewcombjr The reason vintage loudspeakers have level controls is because the output impedance of the amplifier was an unknown. So the controls allowed the end user to adjust the speaker to get flat frequency response.

They were not there to adjust the speaker to the room!

Speakers that have controls like this are on the Power Paradigm. Speakers that are on the Voltage Paradigm (considered 'voltage driven') will not have any controls on the rear. For more on this see:

The Power Paradigm