Klark-Teknik DN-410 Equaliser XLR Configuration Change

If you have sharp eyes, you may have seen the Klark-Teknik DN-410 Equaliser (aka 'Equalizer' in American) in my equipment rack.

Or not.

These EQs have a pretty good reputation for clean sound and having 'surgical' precision for boosting or cutting frequencies as needed.

It's made in England and looks really cool to boot.

It's a dual-channel EQ, so you could use it for tracking, for mixing, or as a stereo unit for mixdown.

The bandwidth goes from 2 octaves down to .08 of an octave! That would be like less than one note.

Surgical indeed.

The DN-410 comes wired with pin 3 of the balanced XLR inputs and outputs hot. I'm not sure why this is, since the AES standard (and most of the world, I thought...) is pin 2 hot.

Fortunately, as the manual says "The unit can be quickly re-configured to accomodate either XLR wiring standard by removing the top cover and changing the orientation of 4 plug-in links per connector, as shown on the adjacent PCB legend."

I'm going to change mine to pin 2 hot so it will match my other gear.

There are 2 screws on either side of the top cover to remove.

And 2 screws on the top as well.

Here's what the DN-410 looks like with the top cover off.

Very tidy PCBs and wiring.

I'm always a little surprised when I open up modern gear, since I'm so used to seeing point-to-point wiring in old radios and amps.

Here's where the input and output connectors are, and where the jumpers are.

Note the two cylinders - they're the output transformers.

Check out these big heat sinks on these transistors. And they say solid-state stuff doesn't get hot.

Aha.

Just as the manual says, there are the jumpers and the PCB legend. You can see my unit is still wired for pin 3 hot. The jumpers are connected 'horizontally' according to the PCB.

So I'll just need to remove them and flip them around.

Recall that the manual says it can be "quickly re-configured."

There are 2 sets of 4 jumpers which prove to be a bit tricky to remove. I manage to get a small screwdriver under one of them and pry it up.

Then by careful, judicious use of tweezers I'm able to get the jumpers out. The jumpers are small connectors in a plastic housing to insulate them.

The tops of the jumper housings are fragile - I accidentally cracked the tops of 3 of them.

However, it won't affect their operation. I'm just noting this in case you try this. There may be a tool to remove this sort of connector, but I don't have one.

Now we just reverse the connectors to the 'vertical' position. There are 4 small pins on the PCB that the jumper connectors fit over.

Simple. But I'm not sure about "quickly."