SND FB14 Filterbank MKII

≈!≈ EU buyers PLEASE NOTE: net price displayed! You are seeing 19% VAT on the unit's price added to the EU shipping costs field. If you have a valid EU VAT ID number please let me know. Then shipping will be 35€.

Works perfectly. Near mint condition. If one looks very closely, one might guess that it has been racked before. But this is very close to a "NOS" condition. See photos

SND's FB-14 MkII is a fixed filter bank with a classic class-A circuit design using coils, which have been custom-made and thus are very costly, but they sound distinctly superior to standard RC-filters. Only 4 transistors in the signal path, 2 of them being selected germanium types, which have a coloration response somewhat similar to vacuum tubes. There are 14 bands with 2-pole-filters. Center frequencies are 35, 65, 105, 160, 240, 360, 540, 800, 1200, 1800, 2700, 4000, 7000 and 12000 Hz. The choice of the frequencies slightly off of fifth intervals avoids a false 'tonality' that can be found on all filterbank designs working with equally spaced intervals.

The control range per band is a hefty +/- 20 dB (!). This corresponds to a ratio of 1/100 compared to 1/16 (+/- 12dB) available on almost all other equalizers and filterbanks. So even drastic sound manipulations are possible that normally require two serial EQs. The q-factor of the filters gradually increases from 0.7 at +/-10 dB to 6 at +/- 20 dB. The individual filters are not decoupled from each other. Thus all kinds of lively and highly desirable phase changes occur. Normally this circuit design has the disadvantage of a very nonlinear control curve (all relevant changes happen within a few degrees at either end of the pot's turn). To compensate for this, sealed high quality pots with a bespoke curve are used, custom-made for SND by ALPS.

Input gain and output level controls: Input gain can be set from - 20 to +20dB. Due to its special circuitry, overdriving the unit opens up blooming soundscapes which cannot be designed with standard rc-filters / op-amp based filter banks.

Superior hand-build quality and component selection as found in all three classic SND products.

Includes PSU with 12V AC / 230V – not switchable!