I miss midrange and tweeter level controls

[ligs]

I miss those midrange and tweeter level controls

Having listened to some vintage speakers lately, I found they usually came with continuously variable level controls for the midranges and tweeters. In typical home setting, these level controls are extremely useful for making FM programs listenable. I wonder why few modern speaker designs incorporate this nifty feature anymore?

[Deward Hastings]

I wonder why few modern speaker designs incorporate this nifty feature anymore?Probably mostly because "tone control" and graphic equalizers have largly migrated into the electronics . . . most HT receivers can do a better job of it, providing variable slopes and boost/cut at frequencies more useful than the step-function-at-crossover provided by driver L-Pads. The perhaps most useful control, variable baffle step compensation, is relatively hard (expensive) to implement unless the W/M crossover is at the baffle step frequency (and relatively shallow as well). High order crossovers would give such a sharp step function, both at baffle step and above, that using driver level for tone control would almost certainly be worse than the "problem" solved.

That said, many active monitors (like the Berringer B2030A) do incorporate switch selectable BSC, switch selectable tweeter rolloff and a switch selectable highpass (for better subwoofer integration) . . . enabling them to be used in almost any room or room position.