Loadsa Knobs !! Any idea what this does?

Idly flicking through ebay, daydreaming, I found this, does anyone have an idea what it does? More knobs than you can shake a stick at. Now I've got my own play room in the new house, I thought I might buy it and just put it on the rack ... not plug it in or anything, just have it there out knobbing all comers ... so to speaK.

seriously though, what does it do?

 

It's an electronic crossover.

 

Cool! It's a variable electronic crossover for a 4-way speaker. A knob-twiddler's delight indeed. You could use it to build a DIY active speaker system (assuming you have enough power amps).

 

So, are you saying that you could basically use this to create an active system and use the box to adjust the crossovers for each driver? That'd be ace ... except all the different options might make me neurotic.

Those japs were crazy in the 70s ... what happened since?

 

accuphase have a similar modern device... and there are various studio versions available

 

Loads of people still make them. Car audio is full of them and anything larger than a JBL out of the box PA rig won't work without an active x-over (the new ones are all wirelessly adjustable etc. so you can tweak the sound whilst walking around the venue). They just aren't practical for most home users though, in extreme cases you could break your speakers.

 

Just wondering. Could you use such a device to help design crossover networks for passive speakers as well? ie. a chance to get an aural glimpse of what a crossover might sound like before getting the soldering iron out?

 

yes but it wouldn't sound anywhere near as good when you removed the active unit

 

Y'know, I'm tempted. What would I need for this?

I'm guessing (and please put me right if I'm wrong) - If I had a pair of two way speakers I'd need to remove the crossovers and wire each driver directly to a power amp (so two stereo power amps required?) and then each power amp to this box o knobs and then the box o knobs to a pre. Is that right?

 

Yes, except that the box of knobs in question appears to be for a 4-way speaker.

 

Good point. So you would actually need four way speakers and 4 stero power amps (or 8 monoblocs), yes? Oh dear. It stops sounding like a fun thing to mess with