dbx Soundfield 1A

dan-c

dan-c

Perpetual Lurker
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In the house :banana:

Surrounds are all good, at least until I plug them in. Hardly no flaws. A little delamination on one spot. They are a little faded as evidenced when the covers are removed. One tweet looks kiddie poked but no biggie.

I'll give them the listening test in the morrow. So far so good...
 
Some glamour shots. Still not connected yet...

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DBX made some real weird speakers with drivers all over the cab. Will be interested in your evaluation of the sound.
 
Holy Crap! These things are awesome :banana:
No controller box, but jeebus these things are insane :smoke:

Elvis Costello s rocking the house. Bass nice and strong, not much coloration in the mids, tweets blend n well. Sound imaging kinda moves around with you.


Me Likey


A couple of mids were a little crackling when I first turned them on, but who know the last time they were played.

Pump it Up. Holy Cow...Potential major SCORE :D
 
There is some serious R&D in those and they were very expensive when new. I think Stereophile reviewed them back in the day and it's possible the review is archived on their site. They have a unique dispersion pattern that supposedly gives a pretty good stereo image from any position in front of the speakers == please tell us how they work for you.
 
Soundfield controllers

I found this old thread while searching for info on Soundfield 1s and figure it'd be a good place to ask a related question.

I have a pair of Soundfield 1As that I've been using for the past year or so as part of my main stereo driven by a Kenwood KR-9600 receiver. Even though I don't have a controller box, these sound pretty good to my ears. That said, I figured I'd try and find a controller box to see how much difference it made.

The original Soundfield Model One came with a controller labelled "dbx Model SFC-1 Soundfield Imaging Controller". The later 1A model came with a controller labelled "dbx Model 1A Soundfield Controller".

Does anyone know the difference between the model 1 and the model 1A and specifically whether using a model 1 controller with my model 1A speakers will yield positive results.

Thanks,
Dave.
 
hazydavy said:
I found this old thread while searching for info on Soundfield 1s and figure it'd be a good place to ask a related question.

I have a pair of Soundfield 1As that I've been using for the past year or so as part of my main stereo driven by a Kenwood KR-9600 receiver. Even though I don't have a controller box, these sound pretty good to my ears. That said, I figured I'd try and find a controller box to see how much difference it made.

The original Soundfield Model One came with a controller labelled "dbx Model SFC-1 Soundfield Imaging Controller". The later 1A model came with a controller labelled "dbx Model 1A Soundfield Controller".

Does anyone know the difference between the model 1 and the model 1A and specifically whether using a model 1 controller with my model 1A speakers will yield positive results.

Thanks,
Dave.
Click to expand...

The manual I received says that the difference in the SFC-1A is internal to the controller itself opposed to the SFC-1. It doesn't say, but leads you to believe no improvements were made to the crossover but only the controller.

I found one a few weeks ago and you're right, they sound ok without the controller. With the controller the change and effect is simply astonishing. They certainly nailed the stereo imaging everywhere technique. These are my current favorites playing through a Yamaha A-1020.

Worth searching for a controller, mine came up on Ebay starting bid of $7.99, I offered the dude $100 to close early and of course he did. I would have paid more. The price of admission in this case IMO is worth it.
 
dan-c said:
The manual I received says that the difference in the SFC-1A is internal to the controller itself opposed to the SFC-1. It doesn't say, but leads you to believe no improvements were made to the crossover but only the controller.

I found one a few weeks ago and you're right, they sound ok without the controller. With the controller the change and effect is simply astonishing. They certainly nailed the stereo imaging everywhere technique. These are my current favorites playing through a Yamaha A-1020.

Worth searching for a controller, mine came up on Ebay starting bid of $7.99, I offered the dude $100 to close early and of course he did. I would have paid more. The price of admission in this case IMO is worth it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Dan - very useful. You wouldn't happen to have a PDF of that manual would you?
 
hazydavy said:
Thanks for the info Dan - very useful. You wouldn't happen to have a PDF of that manual would you?
Click to expand...

I bought the manual, I suppose I could scan it. May take a few days for me to get around to it. The ex took the scanner too :D
 
There is an SFC-1 on ebay right now :thmbsp:

if you read the description the guy is describing things he thinks are wrong. My power button was kinda intermitten too but some deoxit and fader lube fixed to whole thing up.

The power monitor lights will always be green unless the controller detects that you could damage the speaker, then it turns yellow. When the Power monitor red light comes on it reduces the power to the speakers automatically. They say in the manual not to use the controller as a volume control :nono:. I can't imagine putting enough wpc into these things to drive it to yellow, much less red :yikes:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yep, I'd spotted that controller on Ebay. It's what prompted my question actually. I also spotted the one that you ended up buying. I was keeping my powder dry and planning on making a late bid. Little did I know that someone would offer $100 and get the auction closed! I was sure to put in an initial bid on this one. We'll see how it goes.
-Dave.
 
hazydavy said:
Yep, I'd spotted that controller on Ebay. It's what prompted my question actually. I also spotted the one that you ended up buying. I was keeping my powder dry and planning on making a late bid. Little did I know that someone would offer $100 and get the auction closed! I was sure to put in an initial bid on this one. We'll see how it goes.
-Dave.
Click to expand...

When you're dealing with things this rare ya gotta go big or go home :D
 
dan-c said:
When you're dealing with things this rare ya gotta go big or go home :D
Click to expand...

I went big and the rest went home :D

Really looking forward to hearing the difference.

If you get the chance to scan that manual I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks for your help Dan.

-Dave.
 
hazydavy said:
I went big and the rest went home :D

Really looking forward to hearing the difference.

If you get the chance to scan that manual I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks for your help Dan.

-Dave.
Click to expand...


Good for you. Not a bad price IMO.

You really will be astounded the difference it makes :yes:

When you get the controller, pm me and we'll set up a call. I won't have access to a scanner for a while, but what you need to do to hook them up is easy. The rest is playing with settings.

Oh, and go ahead and pull the right side off of the controller. The top cover slides out, then deoxit the power switch (it has a plastic cover that comes off) and all of the sliders and push buttons. Definitely clean it before you use it. It is mostly sealed so there won't be any dust issues or smoke resin on the inside.


EDIT>> What powerplant are you going to use them with?
 
dan-c said:
Good for you. Not a bad price IMO.

You really will be astounded the difference it makes :yes:

When you get the controller, pm me and we'll set up a call. I won't have access to a scanner for a while, but what you need to do to hook them up is easy. The rest is playing with settings.

Oh, and go ahead and pull the right side off of the controller. The top cover slides out, then deoxit the power switch (it has a plastic cover that comes off) and all of the sliders and push buttons. Definitely clean it before you use it. It is mostly sealed so there won't be any dust issues or smoke resin on the inside.


EDIT>> What powerplant are you going to use them with?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips Dan. I will take you up on your offer to chat about this. I'll let you know when it arrives.

I have two Kenwood receivers, a KR-7600 and a KR-9600. Currently the 7600 is hooked up to the Soundfields. I mainly play vinyl from a Dual 701 or a Sony PS-X7, together with uncompressed digital via a Slim Devices Squeezebox.
 
hazydavy said:
Thanks for the tips Dan. I will take you up on your offer to chat about this. I'll let you know when it arrives.

I have two Kenwood receivers, a KR-7600 and a KR-9600. Currently the 7600 is hooked up to the Soundfields. I mainly play vinyl from a Dual 701 or a Sony PS-X7, together with uncompressed digital via a Slim Devices Squeezebox.
Click to expand...


You're so gonna be suprised :banana:
 
The Soundfield controller arrived yesterday. Some good news, some bad news. First the good news, cosmetically it's in great shape and the issue with the switches that was listed in the ad turned out to be an easy fix. The bad news is that the signal from the left channel is seriously attenuated. This also happens when the unit is in "bypass" mode which makes me feel a little better as the problem is likely not deep in the bowels of the processing circuitry. However, this isn't a true bypass as it doesn't work when there's no power on. I didn't have much time to look at this last night but I'll do some more tinkering over the weekend. Does anyone have a circuit diagram for this thing?

Thanks,
Dave.
 
Not surprising that it wouldn't have a mechanical bypass...most likely it ALWAYS buffers the audio signal, and the purpose of the bypass is just to switch the additional processing in and out of the circuit.

Post some interior pics if you can and i'm sure someone will have some ideas about what to look at!
 
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