Lexicon 960LS
A scaled-down flagship that kept the reverb and dropped the surround - and still cost more than most people's entire studio.
Overview
The 960LS is the stereo-only member of Lexicon's 960L family. The pitch was simple. Keep the reverb engine that made the flagship famous, strip out the multichannel processing, and let the buyer upgrade later if the work demanded it. EQ (April 2003, p.88) described it the same way in its review - a lower-priced version of a top-of-the-line processor that could be brought up to full 960L specification. So the buyer wasn't getting a dead-end box. It was a 960L with the surround hardware and software left off the invoice.
The machine is split into two pieces. A rackmount mainframe holds the I/O and DSP electronics, and a separate LARC2 remote controller connects to it over a multi-pin cable. That cable, per EQ (April 2003, p.88), can run up to 1,000 feet. Under 100 feet the remote pulls power from the mainframe. Beyond that it needs its own supply. The mainframe's rear panel has eight XLR ins and eight XLR outs for analog, plus MIDI in, out and thru, and word clock in, out and loop thru. Inside sits a single DSP card, with room for a second.
That DSP card can be partitioned into as many as four independent "machines," or effects engines, each with its own analog I/O. The number you actually get depends on sample rate and effect configuration. EQ (April 2003, p.88) notes that at 88.2 or 96 kHz, two machines are available. The analog I/O is 24-bit/96kHz, eight channels of it, which is a lot of conversion for a box whose stock configuration is stereo reverb. The front panel has a floppy drive for saving settings, a CD-ROM drive for software updates, a reset switch and a power standby switch. Everything else is driven from the remote.
The LARC2 is where the 960LS earns a good deal of its keep. It has eight touch-sensitive motorized faders for parameter adjustment, an array of dedicated and soft buttons, a joystick, three-stage signal-present LEDs, and an LCD that EQ (April 2003, p.88) describes as amazingly informative — it can list presets with short descriptions of each, or serve as an eight-channel level meter. Digging deep into effect parameters is reportedly straightforward rather than a menu-diving ordeal, which matters on a unit this deep.
The stock 960LS does not include digital I/O. That's an option, added via I/O cards, and with them fitted the unit can access up to 16 channels of I/O. Software options include automation, stereo delays, and additional 96kHz reverbs. Enabling multichannel capability opens up surround configurations, surround delays, more 96kHz reverbs, and LOGIC7 UpMix. Delay algorithms in general are available once the owner registers the unit, per EQ (April 2003, p.88).
The period press was clear on the sound. EQ (April 2003, p.88) called the 960LS about as good as it gets for top-notch stereo reverbs, and summed it up as a top-of-the-line stereo reverb processor whose sound quality is every bit what the price implies. The same review was candid about the cost - not exactly budget-priced - and about the missing stock digital I/O. A 2004 Mix equipment piece (October 2004, p.81) put the 960LS at $16,649 in a fantasy studio build. It described the unit as similar to the 960L without the multichannel processing and AES/EBU digital I/O, with eight channels of 24-bit/96kHz balanced XLR I/O, flexible I/O mixing, and a seemingly infinite collection of reverbs and other effects.
The 960LS is a flagship-derived reverb engine at a fraction of the 960L's cost, and the upgrade path means the hardware ceiling is higher than the badge suggests. The trade-offs are real: no surround, no stock digital I/O, and a price that was never friendly.
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