In praise of Tone Controls

I think that also rooms being smaller, space and placement restrictions, and large use of bass reflex adds to the need for some EQ

 

Well if BOSE says so, who are we mere mortal's to argue with The likes of BOSE?

 

I remember when I got into the big league of audio with an Adcom 555, Adcom preamp, Thorens 160, and Polk sda1a and a Philips cd 960 that many love but I didnt, to me it was tinny sounding, (got Pioneer 1 bit laserdisc player a few years later and to my ears destroyed the Phillips 960). Wish I still had it but gave it to my girls in 1991 when we moved into a new home, they destroyed it, had the Cal dx 1 by then I think.
The new intelligentsia was no tone manipulation. I just came out of a system that had an an ADC soundshaper 3 so boy was I nervous. Connected the new system set the Adcom preamp flat and it sounded so good. Never went back.
It just sounded so pure and still had kick in bass and even a good soundstage. 35 years later with amps with and without tone controls I never touched them. It does seem silly not to experiment but the sound I love since then somehow never needed them.
When the room is setup with absorbers/diffuser and proper speaker placement the thought of putting the tone controls in the circuit never enters my mind. My one system has the amazing Vincent 236mkII with 1959 tubesNOS has tone and loudness controls maybe for some excitement Ill try them. Dont get me wrong I activated them a couple of times before but never needed to keep them in the circuit.
Back in 1985 salesmen and magazines thought using anything that could take the purity and simplicity out of a straight simple circuit was blasphemous. Well in my case they were right. Honestly though if you like tone controls and equalizers use them. Its your stereo Enjoy it. John M.

 

I put together piles of equipment costing over $200,00 and up for people that really care to have an astonishing sound system.
I trained over at the recording side of the industry to better understand what the product is made out of.
Then I worked closely with mastering engineers at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley and Sony over on West 54th Street in Manhattan.
I was trying to tie the two ends of our hobby together to see where the home amateur was going "wrong" and how to better serve my industry and my clients who paid a ton of money for the best out there.
After a great while I realized that great audio set to a neutral standard that captured 99.99% of the professional recordings on the planet and made them shine in all their glory WAS CORRECT.
And poorly setup rooms with poor acoustics and band aid tone controls and all the other junk only DEGRADED the sound.
The true glory of great sound is simply astonishing and does not need to be adjusted every five minutes to compensate for your bad speakers/bad room/lifeless DAC or whatever.
It takes a ton of time and a lot of effort to set a playback system right.
I might think you guys would want to know how to do this as the SHF is a mastering site.
If my footsteps are worth following great.
If you don't WANT to know that's fine too.
Decent playback is fun, cheap and easy.
Great effortless "always sounds GREAT" audio is a total beast.
Darn near every recording ever made by a reputable engineer will play back and sound astounding on a GREAT playback system
Think of a huge theater sound system with those gigantic Western Electric horn speakers and Altec A7s and so forth.
They don't NEED to be jacked up every five minutes.
THAT is my goal.
To give the HOME user that amazing experience.
High standards indeed.
But I never get over the shock of how great a PERFECT playback system sounds.
It doesn't have to be only about how expensive it is either.
Sometimes the big huge improvements come from improving the room.
Sometimes by getting just the right combination of speaker drivers all set to play at a perfect coherent level together.
On occasion a little bit of EQ trim to fix the room modes and nodes in the extreme bass is in order.
But once done---step back.
You are now in the presence of a system that needs no apology---no bandaids---every recording made by a caring pro will simply SING.
My two cents.

 

I give BOSE credit for great sounding, noise cancelling ear buds. I'm excited to see what BOSE and others have in store.

 

OK. So you set up up hi fi gear for rich people. Got it

 

I’m of the camp that says “if it sounds better to you, do it”. Whatever that takes.
I know hundreds of musicians and I bet that 99% of them would rather you listen to their records using tone controls than not listening at all.

 

I need my tone controls.

 

Tone controls are fun

 

BOSE has developed some nice noise cancelling technology. But, BOSE is aimed at specific markets.

The audiophile market is not one of them.

 

Hold on to that thought!

Big horn loaded speakers, little class "A" tube amp's.

 

Oh yea

 

Ya, Loki is the bomb.

 

Put it this way. tone controls tune my speakers to sound way better. I would not own an amp without tone controls. It is as important as the speakers itself! If you own a newer tube power amp without tone controls as most are built, get a tube preamp. I never found a SS amp that can compare to tube type.

 

Balance is equally important and it's completely absent from most serious gear.

 

No highs, no lows, must be BOSE, in need of tone controls.

 

My Naim preamp has a balance control and it almost never gets used. I wouldn't miss it if it disappeared. The mono switch on it is more useful.

 

I doubt it would be possible, but I wonder if they could market a "Lego" type audio system? You purchase the individual pieces (amplifier, pre amplifier, power supply, overall volume control) and put them together like a set of Legos. Then you add in just the pieces that you want (tuner, CD player, cassette deck, tone controls, displays [basic, complicated, everything but the kitchen sink]). Put it all together and you've got just the audio system that you want.

 

I'm pro-tone all the way, especially if you have the option of activating the tone controls if you want to. IMO no tone controls = a lack of versatility.

 

I use one of these now for the rear speakers of my 5.1 setup. It’s an improvement, but “fun”? There’s nothing fun about it. At best, it simply serves a purpose. I can’t imagine using it in my stereo setup.

 

Try it, made a huge difference for me on imaging, especially as my room is not perfect.

 

I want to start by saying that whatever makes your listening experience more enjoyable is not wrong, whether it's tone controls, loudness button, a fat doobie or a favorite cocktail. My main system consists of mono block SET amps and a tube pre and no tone controls. It is in a tweaked dedicated listening room (more tweaking to come), and I have never felt the need for tone controls. I recently added a second system to my living room consisting of mid 70s vintage Pioneer components with B & W speakers. When I first listened to the system it sounded off, then I noticed the tone controls were engaged. When I bypassed them, everything sounded much better and have left it that way. However, that could just be that the settings were wrong. This thread makes me want to experiment a little with them.


BTW, for those using tone controls I have repeatedly read that recording engineers prefer to use EQ to reduce frequencies rather than boost them, so you may want to keep that in mind.

As far as mono switches- I could not live without them, they make a big difference.

 

Raylinds, fat doobie, lmao!

 

My only tone controls are the tubes which I roll into my amps. This approach works great for me.

 

Well, I do use it (sparingly,) in my main stereo setup, and without it, in some cases, I would just have to "imagine" an improvement in sound quality.
The Loki does indeed serve a purpose. And, yes, it is kind of "fun" realizing that you have some control over the kind of sound you are creating with it.