On tone controls

For years I used a preamp with no tone controls. Not only that but I bypassed its output stage for shortest signal path, by connecting my cable and going from Record Out on the back, instead of the usual Output terminals. As usual this bypasses the balance and volume controls but no problem since my amp had a variable volume control. I listened to vinyl and tapes and compact discs. Some recordings sounded just right, but many I wished had a bit more treble or on some a bit less, but I just figured, oh well some records are a little dull or vice versa. Then one day I was using an integrated amp that I found a good deal on and I was playing a Santana album and thought that the bongos needed something. Bongo drums played in real life sound like more than just a succession of raps. I went over and boosted the bass to 1 o'clock and viola; all of a sudden it sounded like a real bongo drum was in my room. Not just raps but that low frequency resonance sound it makes in real life and it actually sounded bigger, way bigger and had body. All from just a slight turnof a knob. Another time I was playing something with woodwinds and I thought they sounded sweet but closed in, not airy enough. Once again, one slight turn of the treble control to 1 o'clock made them sound as airy and extended as I had ever heard them. The midrange too had way more life all of a sudden. I then began to realize what I was missing all those years.

Each company that releases music on disc has different monitoring equipment. If their monitor speakers or electronics are brighter than yours, when you play back their recordings with no tone controls or tone controls on flat, you are hearing the recording duller than it was meant to be heard. Not only the highs but the midrange whose character is highly influenced by the highs, and the sense of life of the recording. I have 2 systems in different rooms. One a no tone control short signal path system and another with tone controls. I am not so sure that the amp without tone controls is significantly more transparent. I Don't doubt that the signal going through an extra stage might be some compromise; but its so slight (if at all) that it now feels masochistic to be without tone controls. Being able to get the instruments sound just right is way more importaunt than the tiniest amount of transparency, that is not important in the least. It's a bad trade off if you ask me. I listen to my system with tone controls more often by far. If you have equipment without tone controls, know you are giving up something and in exchange getting very little if anything back. Being able to touch things up so the instruments sound perfectly like they should, having just the right timber, energy and life is likely how the recording was meant to be heard. You are missing more than you know.

 

I use a Loki with my rear speakers to get a better match with my fronts when listening to surround music. It’s okay for that, but I can’t imagine using it for main stereo listening.

 

The best sound for my ears is to EQ the music following the middle line starting 100 of the "EQ loudness contour ISO 226-2003" at 70% music volume.

 

'End goal'. What is the end goal? Surely it is to enjoy the musical performance. That's it!

I'd go further and say that it doesn't have to be what the artist intended or what anyone else says it should be. Only that you should be the judge of its pleasantness.

Now of course if you want to adhere to specific principles such as 'I must hear the recording as the artist intended' that's fine. However recordings are made to be played in a variety of situations, and in some cases, the audiophile is the last person to be considered. Secondly these recordings are clearly of variable quality anyway. But even if we ignore this and accept they are really what the artist intended, I would like to point out some of the difficulties you might have in trying to achieve this.

1. Your listening environment - room and its contents, car, headphones.
2. The positioning of your speakers and listening chair.
3. Your own ears and body - Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF), age related and other hearing damage.
4. Listening volume - Equal Loudness Curves.
5. The quality of your gear.
6. Environmental conditions - temperature, humidity.

To get an idea, just walk around your room to hear how the sound changes in different places. Or increase the volume and hear how bass and treble are more noticeable.

I would go so far as to say that EQ is essential to get the best from any system. It's just that some people don't want to know this because of some principle which may be desirable - 'I must hear the recording as the artist intended' - but is almost impossible to achieve.

 

I bathe with the water at whatever temperature the water company sees fit to send because I believe in bathing with the water at the temperature they intend. So the command that mixes hot and cold water is in the ¨off¨position at all times. I freeze to death sometimes, but hey, happy camper !

 

I don't place 100% faith in every cab driver or forklift operator who ever mastered an album. I have a working pair of ears and I prefer using them.

 

My hearing is going, so I need to "fortify" whatever I'm playing to get satisfaction. Gotta do what you gotta do...

 

Also, I think people overestimate the extent to which the artist had anything to do with the mastering. In most cases, the artist performed the music, maybe wrote it, but typically left it to producers and mastering engineers to take it from there. Now, if those people did things right, what made it to the record sounded pretty close to the actual performance, but the whole “as the artist intended” is barking up the wrong tree, IMO. What I am after is for music to sound like I think it would have sounded when performed (less so the more electronic things get, of course).

 

The nice thing about tone controls is that you can bypass em if it sounds better without them. I attempt to listen to any music track so that it will sound the most pleasing. I don't add or subtract anything from the original to make the track sound worse.

That would be counterproductive imo.

 

I find I rarely use the tone controls on my amplifiers because more often than not they just mess up the sound. My Rotel has interesting ones that cut and boost only 3.5 db @ 100 Hz and @10 000 Hz. On both amplifiers you can bypass the tone controls which is what I normally do although sometimes I play around with the variable loudness control on my Yamaha.
I tried an equalizer once but I found it just contributed more noise than anything else. Luckily I had bought it very cheap at a garage sale.

 

Not sure if that's a perfect analogy, but it was LOL-funny for me! I am 72. I have medically diagnosed hearing loss, but still good up to 12k (a/o last year). Among other EQs I deploy, I find that my Kanto Syd and the iTunes built-in EQ are happy together. And I'm happy with and for them.

 

Thank you for that, Alan. I'm replying just so I can quote your message, especially its last sentence (emphasis added).

Though this entire thread seems to have been started by a troll, your response (among others) had given some value to it.

 

Adjusting tone controls so the instruments sound as genuine as they can sound, I believe is the way to go. If the mastering engineer equalizes it so the acoustic guitars don't sound like acoustic guitars, I don't think I want to hear that, even if that's what was intended. Equalization on recordings is like volume level, just as you have to adjust volume for each recording or get blasted out or at the other extreme, have to listen at a level where the presence suffers, tone, like volume level, is all over the place. I am not so lazy that I can't get my rear off the couch and adjust the treble. Maybe I am lucky but the amps I have used do not suddenly lose a bunch of transparency or openness anytime I use the tone control. Having equipment without tone controls may have you buying cable after cable and who knows how many other kinds of upgrades before you get your sound right. But on many recordings it will be wrong again. Without tone controls you have to try to achieve a system balance where it will not be too bright on too many recordings or too dull on too many. Tone controls are a simple solution, and if you are willing to overcome inertia and actually get up and adjust your treble, you can dial in an ideal balance on any recording you play, instead of settling for a tonal compromise which can sound harsh on some recordings or dull & devoid of life on others. It's not fashionable though, and great preamps with tone controls? I like high quality integrated amps too. No tone controls on many of them either now or phono sections. More buying.

 

IME basic treble/bass adjustments are generally too crude for tweaking for each album to taste (and too lazy). OTOH a set-and-forget adjustment could be invaluable for a particular system or room.

My current preamp has four digital filters - subtle but effective and actually quite nice to have. You also realise if there was only one option you'd think it was 'it' and not miss them at all.

 

Go get 5 to 10 copies of the same album on vinyl. Hear the huge differences? Which one did the artist intend to be the way they wanted it heard?

 

Yes, I think the crude nature of just cutting or boosting “bass” and “treble” rather than more of a multi-band EQ is why it sounds weird to some of us. Simply applying a blunt curve at the low or high end of the frequency range does not make any instruments sound more genuine or natural to me, it just makes the overall tonality more or less bassy or trebley.

 

And precisely why the four knob Schiit Loki is such an effective and easy to use tone control.

 

If that’s true then why do mastering engineers not master everything flat?

 

That’s for sure one of the reasons I would consider a Loki if I felt I needed some tone control in the system more than very rarely.

 

I really appreciate having some control of the Mids, especially so for vocals.

 

I think tone controls do a nice job. They are not as discriminate as an equalizer but that would involve an extra cable and the signal going through too much extra circuitry. Most tone control circuits are rather simple and that is actually a blessing for the signal.

 

Haven’t we done this?

 

More than once...

 

Yes, many times but this is the latest installment.

More to come.

 

Guess you’re right.
I love tone controls and especially loudness buttons and or switches
Oh and high and low frequency cutoff bu ons.