Life without tone controls ... it sucks!

Thanks, Steve.



-Bill

 

My god, Would you let Doug answer for himself. You spin things in a way that makes gibberish sound coherent.

 

Equipment without user adjustable controls besides volume and balance is plain stupid! Anything else is just BS.

I hear all kinds of talk on this site about professional mastering engineers giving advise on certain recordings for eq settings.

Not everything is recorded or mastered to an individuals taste. If you don't like to futz then don't use the controls.

Without getting into semantics, it's a good idea to either have an equalizer or some form of other controls. It is a great idea for those who like to make adjustments.

Of course the controls should be built into the system so than when they are set to zero, it bypasses the controls.

 

I'm sure that Doug will explain it to your satisfaction. Pardon my coherency.
-Bill

 

Ah, in gibberish you said, "Pum'v sulo zaxat Peug wirr oxpraxain dit te yeep saxatisbaxandien. Paxalden vupp ceholoncupp" Back to original programming.

 

That's about the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Better to spend thousands on a new preamp, amp, speakers and room treatment, (and probably $400 power cables and speaker wire), than have bass and treble knobs on your amp.

 

It's a problem I've been dealing with all my life? Twice in 1986 tweeters were blown in both my Klipsch Heresys and a pair of 6x9 Infinity car speakers. Purchased both from the same store and needless to say they weren't happy the second time! Since then effort on my part is to try and keep it at a minimum and it hasn't happened since.

 

Yet, it will be surpassed probably by tomorrow.

 

Sadly, that is probably true.

 

That's fairly extreme.

 

I have that amp, I leave the Loudness on almost all the time and the bass & treble flat. It seems to work well at lower volume levels. I would never buy any equipment without tone controls.

 

Seems extreme to me and obviously I don't agree with it. Can't say I ever missed them over the last 15 years and you can add to that another 10 years where I had them in earlier systems and never used them.

Thinking back to the early days of playing around with tone controls, I'm slightly embarrassed about the messing around I did for no good reason.

 

I use tone controls at work all the time, shelving, parametric, and graphic.

When listening at home, I don't have the time, the energy, or the inclination to micro-manage the presentation of pre-recorded music.

 

Would trying to enjoy music more be a good enough reason? Or should those who use tone controls be embarrassed?

Funny thing, still haven't been lucky enough to have every recording in my collection sound ideal to my ears in my system.

 

Everyone still uses the same ears to hear unamplified sounds in real life, and amplified or reproduced music and sounds. The reference is reality, and we all have that, no matter how well or how poorly our ears function. Except for the deaf and near-deaf of course...

 

If it works for you - why not, it doesn't add anything to my enjoyment. BTW, I didn't say you should be embarrassed because you have tone controls, I said I'm embarrassed of the silly fuzzing around I did with them for no good reason.

 

I haven't had a system with tone controls for about three years now. Haven't missed them.

 

I like the loudness button since I'm running small bookshelfs for the time being. I only use loudness when I'm listening at very low volumes at night. I have yet to have a car system that I did NOT have to use the tone controls. My SAABS came with Harmon Kardon systems that sound great (with subs,multi speakers, etc), but I still have to tweak. Especially treble

 

Tone controls are a godsend in certain situations, listen to Pet Sounds in a nasty room, you just gotta reach for the treble, and maybe the mid just a touch.

I used to have a SAE E101 parametric with presets, one of the best consumer rigs back in the 80's, just a touch of a button and all is good.

I rarely use the tone controls on my pre, but it's nice to have when needed.

I can't imagine listening to a song (later Yes recordings for example) and going ouch when I could just dial it in and go ahhhhh.

No ones room is perfect, you have to adjust.

 

May you please provide a rough sketch of your room layout with accurate measurements? I'd like to see what issue you are facing and others may have some idea what to do without spending a dime... I think you have all the ingredients already.

 

Sorry Geoff,

It's my knee jerk reaction to the folks who don't feel that people who like them
should have them and also never should use them.

 

Quad

See the tone adjustments that the Quad preamps use, see the link to the Quad 44. These are actually more thought out than the typical tone controls found on most receivers.

Scott

http://www.retrohifi.co.uk/quad 34_44.html

 

What do you do with all that time and energy you have saved from not moving the tone control a fraction of an inch? Use it to take out the trash?

 

Understood. Clearly some audiophiles enjoy tone controls and other forms of equalization. They do have a downside though, and it's a trade off. A tone defeat circuit helps.

I remember my Sansui AU217II had those in 1980. I surely played with them - I mean, they were there. My next amp (preamp, as I went to "separates" after a year) did not have tone controls and I did not seem to miss them. No preamp since has had them, so I live without them.