What the heck does this knob do?

[Firedome]

On my Magnavox R321 receiver one knob is labeled "Timbre"... ???
Was it just a gimmick to add a knob or it actually do something useful?
Just wondering.

[William]

It actually does do something. It's kind of like a midrange control. As you turn it to the right things get brighter in sound. Or, maybe you could call it a second treble control.

Bill

[electra225]

What Bill said. And the timbre control makes a good place to put the power switch on the bi-amp models.

Some wiser person than I is likely going to hand me my head when I offer my observation.

Let's assume for a second you are dressed in black tie and tails, wearing black patent leather slippers. It would be a good bet you are going out to a high-tone occasion of some sort. Then, let's assume that you are dressed in holy, dirty jeans with scuffed up work boots with a can of Skoal in your hip pocket. It would, therefore, seem like a good bet that you were either a participant in a demolition derby or a mud bog. In either case, your method of dress would set the tone, or timbre, for your activities of the evening.

Magnavox decided for some reason now relegated to history, that instead of a usable traditional bass and treble tone controls on their bi-amp equipped models, they needed a tone compensation circuit. Maybe they figured rich people who bought their top line models, were too lazy or too stupid to operate a normal tone control. As best I understand its operation, and based on my own experiences, I'd say the treble switch is actually the timbre control. You can set it to "Mood" or "concert" or a couple other such exotically named selections. The volume control is center-tapped for the tone compensation circuit. Based on the settings of the treble switch and the setting of the bass switch, and of the volume control, the timbre control varies the "warmth" of the output. If the bass is set heavier than the treble, the timbre control give more emphysis on treble. If the treble switch is set heavier than bass, it gives less emphysis on treble. How you troubleshoot the system is anybody's guess. The only thing I know to do is to check each component individually and make sure everything is dead on. Thank God, Magnavox didn't mess up their other tube models with such silliness. Somebody in the "higher-ups" must have liked the system, since they used it on the upper-line SS models like you have. I like to run both my treble control switches on "Concert" with the bass switch set to "Max". Then the timbre control set a little over half. These selections give the most bass and allow the timbre control to brighten up the audio.

[Firedome]

Sounds kind of confusing and rather superfluous. My '72 has no faceplate panel so no idea what the markings or settings might be. I guess just leave it in the middle and use the tone controls only?

[William]

I think it will depend on what speakers you are using? I forget, do you have the originals? For me, each style of music that I play requires adjustment. I'm referring to records not radio. Because all records were not created equal makes a difference. Vocal vs instrumental. Jazz vs classical. Organ vs piano. They all make a difference. My advice, experiment until you get the sounds you like.

Bill