Mackie Big Knob Passive Monitor Controller (2x2), Source + Level Switch

Loving it so far. Very nice and sturdy. Works well for what it does. My only minor gripe is that the volume knob while big, has very little resistance when moving. By very little I mean almost none. It would be nice to have a little resistance for tactile feedback while moving, but as I said before, it's a small gripe. Using for multiple inputs and multiple outs in a recording studio. The dim button works well for alternating between a louder (checking bass and drums) setting and a quieter (balance and tone) listening environment. The mute button does what it says. The mono button is a fantastic tool for checking your mix for phasing issues and for (believe it or not) checking panning and how well everything sits in the mix. No coloration that would affect your mix to the sound as far as I can tell and test. Easy to set up in the studio and will hopefully last a long time.

What I wanted was a fully passive monitor control that switched two stereo inputs into two stereo outputs, AND offers a common subwoofer output regardless of the monitors chosen. I noticed this had some space in the rear panel once the 1/8” jack would be removed, so I got a slightly used one from Amazon warehouse and drilled and soldered. Pic attached. Works fine, although this is a bit of an advanced mod. I used the same 150ohm resistors on the sub outs used on the monitor outs, on both pins 2 and 3. Speaking of which, this unit runs only impedance balanced (it's passive, just using resistors, rather than active balancing or transformer balancing). Sure it accepts balanced connections, but pin 3 just runs 150ohms to ground both in and out, which will net fairly modest noise removal from the cable run. Otherwise they’d need a very fancy potentiometer double dual gang with very strict tolerances. Unbal to monitors with short cable runs not such a problem, but it is somewhat of a volume loss, beyond the loss this unit already has by design. Monitors are typically too loud anyway when driven at line level. There are also a pair of 10uF electrolytics…polarized commodity ones…between input and output. I shunted those off but most people should probably leave them, they don’t hurt the sound much. And 100pf ceramic caps avoiding RF interference coming down the line, perhaps bleeding off a touch of high end in the process. I left those. The next day (not shown in the photo) I also added an On-Off-On toggle under the logo on the back, that offers follow, mute, and solo for the subwoofer, handy for Room EQ Wizard or just hearing what your subs vs monitors are doing. The solo works in conjunction with the main mute button as a fast A/B. Anyway this did solve my problem after modding and the unit is heavy and the knob feels smooth and heavy like a hifi receiver. I improved the signal path a touch and the functionality a ton. I just wanted to show this mod is possible and is good enough to avoid spending more if you can hack it and that’s all you need.

This review is for the Passive version. To this day I still rely on my Mackie Onyx 1640i Firewire mixer in the studio because of its native Core Audio support (ie. no drivers required) and the Passive Big Knob is the perfect compliment. I run the Control Room out from the mixer to the Big Knob and connect Dynaudio BM15a and JBL LSR8 studio monitors on the A/B outputs. For anyone wanting a simple, clean, sleek, quality build monitoring controller on their desk, the Big Knob is great. It's built like a mini tank. A reviewer complained the knob is "too liquidy" and it's easy to accidentally change the volume. Two things to note about that. First, you want to have proper gain staging so you're not turning the knob a half an inch and blowing up your speakers. This is true with any monitoring system. Second, the knob is SMOOTH (ie. liquidy) and that equals quality.

I am using this MACKIE Big Knob for a slightly different purpose. When I first set up my Tascam Model 12 Mixer/Recorder over a year ago I dedicated Channels 9&10 to the Pre-Amp Out of my uTurn Turntable. As much as the Tascam Model 12 is the Hub to my Music Production it is also a part of our Music Rooms listening experience. Now that my set up has grown (with seemingly no end in sight) I wanted to free up those 2 Channels, as the Turntable is not used as frequently (we have a +Audio System in our living room for most of our Vinyl listening). I decided to get a Passive Switcher. In the old days I would have just gone down to my local electronics shop and bought the components and built one but those days of those kind of shops are long gone. I wanted something small. In my research I found a Mackie "Big Knob" Passive Monitor Controller. It is typically used to switch between 2 set of Monitors, like a main and reference pair. But you can also connect two sets of inputs and easily switch between them, which is what I needed. So I just bought one. The build quality is excellent, it is small enough that it fits nicely to the right/rear of my Tascam Model 12. It's out of the way but with easy access. Being passive, the minimal amount of electronics used makes it ultra-low noise and maximum signal integrity. In fact comparing it to the direct signals into the Tascam Model 10 and coming out of the Big Knob there is zero difference, no noise, coloration or volume loss. I don't understand some of the reviews that claim it was either Noisy or The Volume was low. Non of that was the case with mine. I can only suspect "USER Error" or connecting it improperly from those reviewers. It also has some buttons for Mono, Mute, and Dim which might come in handy. Simple, Low cost Solution and based upon my using it I am sure it also makes for a perfect Monitor Controller if that is what you need!

One of the channels is a little louder than the other. To verify this wasn't a problem at another stage I used multiple audio interfaces outputting mono collapsed mixes, and they all came out sounding with the left side a little louder than the right side. I was able to get around this issue by tweaking the gain on my monitors, but it was a hassle going back and forth tweaking things until set right, when before, when i had it connected directly to my interface I had my speakers set a fixed gain point provided by the manufacturer (yamaha, I own hs7s). Other than that. Audio quality is excellent because is transparent, Product is great because is built like a tank, built to last, very functional. Knob feels great. product looks great on my desk. I wish they make a rack version of this thing, would be great in my studio.

I've had my eye on the Mackie Big knob for awhile and finally made the purchase during a sale. It is exactly what I had been looking for, has all the connections I need and is a great price. Its a good low priced option and works well for what I want. I have both my PC and audio interface as the inputs, and two sets of audio monitors as the output. This way I can easily switch between input sources while recording and change my outputs to different monitors while mixing music. Just two minor issues with it - firstly, it does appear to introduce a bit of noise to my audio signal when playing audio directly from my PC rather than my audio interface. Its not too much of an issue, the noise is inly audible at higher volume levels which I generally don't need to be at. I plan to look further into perhaps trying better quality shielded cables to try and reduce the noise from my PC. The other thing of note is the finish on the device itself. In the images it looked more like a plain black device, when in reality it is more dark gray with black speckled all over it. I had initially thought it was a bad paint job, but apparently the speckled are there to help reduce visibility of dust on the device, so there you have it!

For $70, you can't ask too much of a monitor controller. I get that. But even upon first use, I couldn't help but feel as though the signal was being colored/affected. It's subtle for sure, and for such an inexpensive unit certainly negligible, but I figure it's worth mentioning since so many people claim this unit is 100% transparent. It isn't. But by no means does that mean it would affect your audio work, unless perhaps you were a mastering engineer. Other than that, this knob has served me perfectly fine for the last several months. Of course, there's a reason this thing is so inexpensive. And sooner rather than later that reason will make itself apparent. I bought the Big Knob Passive mid-October 2020. It is now April 2021. So having owned this thing for only 6-7 months, there's now crackling and static being produced by the unit. It's present in both source inputs. And on top of that, it's no longer outputting L and R signals equally. You can "fix" this problem by mashing the switches and twisting the knob until it rebalances the outputs, but this obviously is not a reliable solution. These are both issues that you can see other reviewers complain about, so I can't say I'm surprised. Quite honestly I was anticipating these problems, although I had hoped the unit would be able to last me a year. Long story short, don't buy this if you're looking for it to last you many years. It's more or less a disposable product. I bought it knowing full well this was likely the case, given other reviews and it's price. I was fine wasting $80 on this unit because--let's face it--it's such an insignificant sum of money compared pretty much any of the other respectable options on the market. That said, I don't expect everybody to see it that way. If you don't want to have to replace this thing in 6 months time, don't buy it.

Love my new Mackie Big Knob and highly recommend as an A\B switch. I have a 4 channel mixer with 3.5 mm inputs from laptop, mini pc, bluetooth receiver, and my Numark NS7II and only use 1 input on this Mackie Big Knob to switch between two outputs i.e. computer speakers (work remotely) and my DJ speakers (when I want a little louder music). The mute button is a great feature as well.

Excelente material mejora mucho mi flujo de trabajo

I really like the design of this, but found without the proper grounding of a power supply you can introduce noise into the signal. I also noticed as you bring the attenuator knob down to the lower quarter, the left/right speaker channels become unbalanced. So if you are monitoring in this range and mixing your song, you may get a rude shock when it comes to listening on another stereo device.

Fine, but the buttons get loose by the time. You need press it many times to work properly. Good just for sometime and then you need to upgrade for something better

I was looking for a high quality passive volume control to a pair of powered speakers with 2 input sources. The unit appears very well made, the volume control works flawlessly and feels positive to use, and I don’t suffer from any extraneous noise or interference. It wasn’t the cheapest option, but my initial impressions are that it is well worth the higher price.

ボリュームが大きくて使いやすいです。 最小付近で少し左右の音量差があるけど、値段を考えたら許容範囲です。