Which company has the best looking volume knob on their amps?

[jfetter]

care to expound - got a minimalistic steampunk (is that even possible?) look about it

Some observations (questions) on this design are lack of labels, descriptions for knob functions.
Does it imply the user should know functions without labels?

Is there an engineering reason the unit is not housed in the more common rectangle box?

The unit was available in bright colors, unusual for the time.

Yes it sort of looks steampunk. Probably would have worked fine as a movie prop in 1920s Metropolis or Dune.

 

[Galu]

I feel less alone now.

Well, that's something to crow about!

 

[Mr_Zenith]

care to expound - got a minimalistic steampunk (is that even possible?) look about it

Yes.

I'm unsure of the exact make (I'm away from an actual PC at the moment), but that is a Tuned Radio Frequency (TRF) set from the 1920's. These sets consisted of two or three cascaded RF stages, a detector, and a one or two-stage audio amp. They were initially built "breadboard " style, unshielded with exposed wiring; Atwater Kent built some of the more collectible examples.

The one jfetter shows is apparently an enclosed example of one of these sets. The aluminum "bumps" on top provided protection for the tubes and a modicum of shielding, or both.

If you're into knob-twiddling then these are the sets for you! To properly tune in a station, you had to tune all three RF stages to the same frequency - no small feat, since the stages would interact with one another and your body capacitance. When that was all done you could then adjust the volume. That is, if you hadn't turned it down already after losing half your hearing through those old high-impedance headphones (no automatic volume control).

These old sets went away quickly once the Superhet became standard.

 

[Charles Darwin]

Well, that's something to crow about!

You just can't choke your chicken puns, can you?

 

[Galu]

You just can't choke your chicken puns, can you?

Are you crying fowl!

 

[Galu]

An SPL Volume2 active monitor controller.

It's essentially a giant knob (with a very clean pot) and a mute button.

 

[Charles Darwin]

Are you crying fowl!

Boys don't cry.

 

[Charles Darwin]

Some like a big knob

 

[Zen Mod]

I'm biased ........

 

[Galu]

Some like a big knob

You're just fishing for me to repost that old TEAC advert!

You didn't think I'd fall for such an obvious tactic did you?

 

[Charles Darwin]

And yet you did

 

[chrisb]

Is that some of Margot Robbie’s early modelling work?

 

[adason]

I'm biased ........

ClassA biased I hope!

 

[adason]

We need some images in this thread!

 

[adason]

Long time ago I repaired NEC A-11 amp for a friend...I grown fond of their knob design and especially the feel they had, very solid.

 

[adason]

Which reminded me knobs on the Threshold SL-10 I had that time. Guess who bought the SL-10 from me? Amar Bose!
Anyway, I recall my knobs on SL-10 were not that fancy...there were many versions.

 

[KaffiMann]

That's several handfuls worth of knobs in one post, in all kinds of shapes and colours too.

I found some custom ones by someone selling them on Ebay, seller goes by Heart1000

Rustic dark Indian/buffalo nickel volume /tone control knobs with Kennedy half. | eBay

 

[Galu]

Is that some of Margot Robbie’s early modelling work?

Margot can play Jane to my Tarzan any day!

 

[Octavia]

are you sure Margot Robbie was even born when that ad ran

 

[chrisb]

Octavia: OK, ya got me.

Galu: I bet there’d be a lot of volunteers for that role.