Klark Teknik DN-8000
Two inputs, five outputs, and a rack space's worth of DSP that did far more than split frequencies.
Overview
The DN-8000 is a Klark Teknik loudspeaker management processor - a digital crossover, or more precisely what the trade called a "digital electronic loudspeaker controller." The architecture is simple to state. Two inputs feed five outputs, a "2-in/5-out" arrangement that Klark Teknik also described as a "2x5 stereo digital controller." All of it sits in a single rack space. For anyone who spent the 1980s and '90s hauling racks of analog crossovers, parametrics, and delay lines into venues, that density was the point.
Collectors and installers note that the DN-8000 turns up most often in Electro-Voice system documentation, where it was a recommended controller for X-Array Install loudspeaker systems. That tells you what the box was built for: installed sound, not bedroom hi-fi. The unit is 1U rack mountable. A full service manual exists, and the "klark-teknik_dn8000.pdf" runs to roughly 8994 kB, which anyone keeping one alive decades later will be glad of.
The processing per output is where the DN-8000 earns its keep. Each of the five outputs carries programmable high-pass and low-pass filters, four-band equalization, signal delay, and compressor-limiter-and-noise-gate functions. That is a complete drive chain for a multi-way system in one chassis - sub, low, mid, high, and a spare, each shaped independently. Owners describe it as "a box of DSP" whose potential goes well beyond the frequency-splitting tasks normally associated with a crossover. That's fair. The delay and dynamics on every output make it a system controller, not just a divider.
One quirk for anyone patching one in: a forum user on Speakerplans noted the DN-8000 output "only seems to drop to 2.45V," compared against the 1.25V sensitivity of the QSC RMX amps they were pairing it with, and asked whether sensitivity should match or change with amplifier load. That's a gain-staging detail, and the DN-8000's output level is what it is. Matching downstream amps to it takes deliberate attention.
Key Features
2-In / 5-Out Architecture
Two inputs, five outputs, described variously as a "2-in/5-out architecture" and a "2x5 stereo digital controller." In practice one chassis can drive a full multi-way system with a spare output for a fill, a delay ring, or a sub. That flexibility made the DN-8000 a natural fit in amplifier racks. The 1U form factor keeps it compact in a rack already crowded with amps and patch panels.
Per-Output Filtering and Four-Band EQ
Every output carries its own programmable high-pass and low-pass filters plus four bands of equalization. For Electro-Voice XCN systems, Klark Teknik's recommended setup called for Linkwitz-Riley crossover filters with a minimum slope of 24 dB per octave at 125 Hz and 1,760 Hz. This is a box you program to a loudspeaker's measured behavior, not a set-and-forget divider. The four-band EQ per output gives enough shaping to tame a room or voice a cabinet without outboard gear.
Delay, Compression, Limiting, and Gating
Each output also includes signal delay and compressor-limiter-and-noise-gate functions. Delay is essential in any installed system, for aligning a delay ring or a balcony fill to the mains. Having it per output rather than as a single global delay is a real convenience. The dynamics section on each output puts loudspeaker protection and level control in the signal path.
Feedback Reduction, Sidechain Insert, and Presets
Listings for the DN-8000 cite active operation, feedback reduction, a sidechain insert, and presets among its features. The preset memory lets you recall a voicing for a given system and room rather than redialing every filter by hand. The sidechain insert allows external dynamics control. Feedback reduction is there for the live engineer.
Historical Context
The DN-8000's clearest historical footprint is in Electro-Voice system documentation. EV's X-Array Install literature names the DN-8000 alongside the ISP100 and Dx34A as offering "appropriate filtering, equalization and signal delay capabilities to provide optimum performance of the X-Array Install loudspeaker systems." For the XCN system, EV went further and specifically recommended the "Klark Teknik DN8000 2-in/5-out controller."
It also lived inside EV's amplifier racks. Documentation for those 16-U racks describes them holding four Electro-Voice P3000 power amplifiers, one Klark Teknik DN8000 digital controller, a 1-U light module, and a 2U multipin patch panel. That shows how the box was deployed: as the brain of a powered, pre-wired system rack rather than a loose component.
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