Klark Teknik DN-6000 (mid-1990s)

A rack-mounted dual-channel analyser sensitive enough, the trade press claimed, to hear one of nature's quietest creations - and quiet enough that almost nobody wrote anything else about it.

Overview

The DN-6000 turns up in the racks of working engineers far more often than it turns up in the literature. Sources describe it as a professional, rack-mounted dual-channel real-time audio spectrum analyser. It was built for the unglamorous work of testing, aligning and troubleshooting audio systems in broadcast facilities, live sound rigs and recording studios. The name is written both ways in the record - "DN-6000" in some listings, "DN6000" in the majority. The product type drifts depending on who's cataloguing it: Real Time Audio Analyzer, Audio Analyzer, Signal Processor. It's the same instrument, a two-channel rack unit with a spectrum display and a microphone input for acoustic measurement.

The one contemporaneous review the Archive has found is Studio Sound (July 1995, p.15). It reported analysis to a resolution of 0.2 dB, microphone or line-level inputs, a 20 dB trim control, and the ability to accumulate measurements into a composite average. The averaging matters in practice. Room measurements bounce around, and averaging across a coverage area separates the persistent peaks and dips from local noise. A 0.2 dB display resolution is fine enough to see the shape of a problem, not just its presence. Treat all of those figures as single-source. The same blurb resurfaced in Studio Sound (February 1997, p.85), which confirms the unit was still being promoted into 1997 but isn't independent corroboration of the numbers.

Beyond that, the record is thin. There's no original price, no production run dates, no weight or dimensions, no frequency range and no band count in the trade coverage. What fills the gap is the manual and dealer listings, and those make the DN-6000 look like a more serious instrument than the press coverage suggests.

Key Features

1/3 and 1/6 Octave Spectrum Analysis

Frequency mode covers third-octave and sixth-octave spectrum analysis via either the microphone or line inputs. Third-octave is the working standard for room and system alignment. It maps cleanly onto the bands of Klark Teknik's graphic equalisers, which is no accident given the brand's product line. Sixth-octave is the finer setting for chasing narrower problems. The mic input carries a 48V phantom supply, so measurement condensers don't need a separate preamp in the chain.

Microphone Input Calibrated for Specific Capsules

The mic input sensitivity is internally adjustable to calibrate the analyser for a particular Klark Teknik 6051 microphone or the recommended Brüel & Kjær model 4006. That's a factory-alignment job, not a front-panel tweak. It requires a specialised microphone calibrator and, per the manual, should only be carried out by qualified, authorised service personnel. Absolute levels only mean something if the input chain is calibrated.

A and C Weighting Filters

A and C weighting filters let the analyser report levels the way the ear roughly hears them, rather than flat. A-weighting is for level-oriented work. C-weighting puts more of the low end in the picture. Combined with the flat setting, that's three ways of looking at the same spectrum.

Peak, Average and Peak Hold

Response can be switched between peak and average, with a peak-hold function to catch transients that would otherwise flash past. Display range, level and response time are all adjustable. The averaging capability reported by Studio Sound lets the user build a composite average across multiple measurements, which is the practical way to characterise a room rather than a single microphone position.

DN3600 Interface for Automatic Equalisation

The back panel carries a DN3600 interface, and this is the feature that ties the DN-6000 into a working system. Connected by a 16-way cable to a Klark Teknik DN3600 programmable equaliser, the analyser feeds measured room response to the equaliser. The equaliser calculates a correction limited to ±4 dB and adds it to the current graphic settings. Repeat the cycle six to eight times and the measured response converges toward flat. The manual is specific about the setup: the analyser runs in frequency mode with unfiltered pink noise, flat weighting, peak hold off, 60 dB scale, and a response time of a second or more. The level and level trim are adjusted so the spectrum sits in the upper half of the display.

RS-232 Serial Port

An RS-232 PC serial port is listed among the unit's connectivity. Documentation on what the port actually does is absent from the record. Plotting, data export and remote control are all plausible, but the Archive has found nothing that confirms which.

High-Resolution Display and Rack Format

The unit is described as having a high-resolution display, and it's built to rack-mount as a two-channel instrument. Dealer listings note scratches and marks from normal use and age as typical condition. These were working tools that lived in racks and went out on gigs.

Historical Context

The DN-6000 is a mid-1990s model, and the dating is inferred rather than documented. The earliest coverage the Archive has found is the July 1995 Studio Sound piece, and the same descriptive text was still running in February 1997. That suggests the unit remained on the market, or at least on the promotional page, into that year. No production start or end dates have surfaced. Klark Teknik's own framing placed it within the company's broader line of field tools for audio professionals, pitched as a single roadworthy device carrying every important analysis function. No competitor comparisons, design rationale or market context appear in the available sources.

Collectibility & Value

Market data is sparse. One used listing carried a price of $199.99, and a separate listing from January 2009 noted a single unit available at the time. That's thin evidence, and the 2009 date means the figure says little about what a DN-6000 fetches now. A European dealer listed a unit by reference code with price on application. Condition descriptions in the surviving listings are plain: scratches and marks from normal use and age, with at least one unit offered as a real-time analyser in good condition. No common failure modes, maintenance notes or spare-parts availability have been documented, so a buyer is largely on their own assessing a unit. At the time of research, no exact DN-6000 listings were live on eBay.

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