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
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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 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: |
Ralph, Electro-voice provided one AT-37 Level Control for their 2 way's (8 or 16 ohm versions) and two AT-37 Level Controls for their 3 way's (8 or 16 ohms). 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. ....................................... Lewm's opinion: best, for 'easily' matching left to right, is a resistor based level control. Certainly easier to match l/r frequency response than continuously variable L-Pads. Either type can be adjusted differently l/r for a particular condition in a space, like my AR-2ax's in my office: left speaker against a wall, right speaker not near walls Electrovoice's 4 way Model 6 (18" woofer)
has a 5 step resistor based Level Control, with published graphs of the frequency response of each of the 5 settings https://products.electrovoice.com/binary/E-V%20Six%20EDS.pdf Page 2, adjustment of balance control, is all about different spaces different tastes. ....................................... Their monster Patrician 800 (30" woofers) had level controls https://skyfiaudio.com/products/electro-voice-patrician-800-vintage-speakers-4-way-with-30-woofers
........................................... A speaker's impedance, then and now was and is nominal, and typical crossovers are designed for the nominal impedance, and transformer taps also anticipate a speaker's stated nominal impedance. . |
Level Controls: especially continuously variable type are: Easy to Screw Up, Hard to get ’right’, then: to taste, or to your specific hearing ability. Set in the middle, leave them alone, or use them as needed/desired. For many years, I would get a friend over, in a specific space, and simply mess with the balance controls until I, with my friends help, got what I thought ’best’, in that space, in that location, with ’that’ toe-in. All by younger ears. Adjusting base for tilt, to aim tweeters at seated ears came later. Infinite Slope Model 2’s with Slanted face also alters the angle of reflection from floors and ceilings, as does toe-in from side walls.
............................................ Covid Times, home all the time, unspent money, I upgraded my entire system Including a much more careful adjustment/matching of my 3 way speakers 1. Mess with toe-in, two alternates for best imaging a. one listener dead center b. two listeners, small drink table centered 2. Buy Inexpensive SPL with bottom fitting for Tripod Mount (ear height/listening position 3. Find my Amazing Bytes CD with Test Tones: tracks 9-38 of this CD
https://www.discogs.com/release/7290000-Various-Amazing-Bytes 4. Make enlarged copies of that page to write adjusted results on Back and forth, back and forth, sleep on it, back and forth 5. McIntosh Preamp’s Mode Control, Stereo Reverse, L to both; R to both ... page 8 6. VOICE Tests, Voice (and Instruments) cannot wander from their positions as frequency varies a. Cassandra Wilson, Blue Light Till Dawn b. Barbra Streisand/Donna Summer Duet, Enough is Enough c. Richard Burton, War of the Worlds d. Annie Lennox, Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams 7. Hearing Ability: even though the microphone hears the highs ’equally’, I am 74, I don’t hear highs as well as the mic does, So, raise the tweeters a speck at a time, get the wife to listen (women hear highs more than men), get my neighbor recording engineer over: raise, but not too much. Eurythmics is helpful for this. Get my younger audiophile friend over here (very familiar with my system). Not only best frequency for me in my space, the refinement of Imaging is revealed. The better you get your imaging, the more sensitive you are to great or not so great imaging, dumb decisions like having Max Roach right side, but moving Max to the center during solos. Now you love remote balance to make slight changes that make a bog difference. All imaging id Phantom, based on balance of L/R to create/locate ... here or there. Slight adjustment of balance improves Imaging of whole album or individual tracks (recorded different times/spaces/engineers). Gotta get it right, it ain’t easy, but wonderful results after careful work. Move to a different space: here we go again!
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