Tone Controls, why not!

Well you won't correct bad sound with tone controls.

 

Do you mean GZ ? Take a look here.

 

If you're against tone controls, then I guess you must also leave the brightness, contrast, tint, and color controls on your TV set and computer monitor exactly in the middle of their range, too -- right?

 

I can correct too much treble or lack of bass, both of which I encounter from time to time.

 

A better analogy would be if the viewer tweaked the brightness, contrast, tint, and color controls for each show they watched.
I bought a TV, adjusted the levels and haven't touched it since. Some shows look better than others. I live with it.

I bought a stereo, adjusted the sound via placement and room treatments and haven't readjusted since. Some albums sound better than others. I live with it.

The difference being that you have to adjust the tv because they ship with levels maxed. Stereos shouldn't ship that way.

 

I don't know to whom you are referring, but I've never said I'm against tone controls. It's not like being a Vegan.

I don't think it's a question of for against. Certainly not in my case. My use of the "Loudness" and "Filter" buttons on occasions, does actually adjust the tone. I do sometimes use the rotary controls but rarely.

As for TVs. The factory setting works fine for me.

I spend more time listening and watching, than "messing."

 

Just ordered one of these for fun this weekend. For $99, I thought I'd check it out. My first set of tone controls in 30 years!
Review: JDS Labs Subjective3 Analogue 3-band Equaliser - Sound Perfection Reviews

 

I usually turn the bass and treble controls up to max, then I reduce volume control down a bit to compensate, and it sounds great. Works best for jazz and some classical. For rick I generally leave everything flat IR bypass the tone modulators by engaging the “direct” switch on the amp.

 

The “sort of like cheating” mentality does exist, and I would say that’s silly. This isn’t a competition, it’s listening to music, and whatever is enjoyable to the person who spent the hard-earned dollars is fine.

However, the “why not?” for me is because tone controls generally make things sound worse IME. I’ll employ them if something sounds too bright and is giving me a headache, or if the bottom end is mastered too low, but these are rare circumstances.

 

Some amps seem, or at least appear to seem, to need enhancing in the highs or lows. Whether done by matching to different speakers or adding subwoofers or just tuning with tone controls if available, it’s all done to tastes.

My preference is little to no tone controls but with my Parasound A21 driving the speakers I own I was forced to kick in some bass for most listening if I wanted to hear any decent bass.

With my Pass X250 there’s absolutely no need for additional tone enhancement. Part of that I suspect is the far lower damping factor of the Pass vs the A21 amp. The other part is just differences in sound between the two amps which are significant.

 

If it looked good that way, yes.

This is comparing two very different technologies, though. Surely you realize that...

 

Its really about musical pleasure.
No room is perfect.
Some cd,s are poorly mastered.
Others perfect.
I have a quad 33 preamp

Nice. But sounds better with tone controls
Bypassed.
But i do have the option.
They are ok on some cd,s my room being big and trouble free.
I tried it in my smaller system and they were fine.
Its true that all being well in todays world with high output sources and well
Designed amplifiers and decent sources
They are not needed and do add colouration.
But the point is that Phono Groove enjoys
Using them.
Thats all that matters.

 

I wouldn't even consider gear that doesn't allow the user to adjust, at the least, bass and treble to fit the room.

 

Why would it be any more of a compromise that different speakers (and positioning them) , amps, cartridges and so on? Tuning an entire room is not always possible.

 

I don't use the tone controls of my Parasound Halo Integrated very much because enabling them causes subtle but audible sound degradation.

 

This is the classic smiley equalization.

 

Yep, "free your mind, and your *ss will follow"...

 

I tame my Klipsch Heresys with a Schiit Loki equalizer. Works great.

 

The last time I used a "bass booster" or had to do surgery to my treble was---I dunno---40 years ago?
A full range accurate system is all I want.
Recordings all sound gorgeous 99.999% of the time.
Recordings are NOT made simply to piss you off with bad sonics---BELIEVE IT OR NOT.
They are made to give pleasure and in the last thousand songs I played I have heard only one that was truly awful sounding.
It was an AfroBeat jungle record made in Zimbabwe on a portable cassette recorder at full distortion.
Ugh!
If professional recordings frequently sound terrible on your set that is your fault, they sound amazingly great all the time (99.999%) on mine.
But if YOU need or want a "bass booster" then knock yourself out.

 

But adding an equalizer will make your stereo "explode with life" and have a 30% to 50% improvement in sound quality!

 

Bad analogy and a strawman argument if there ever WAS one.
In fact I am a video technician setup expert for home A/V and I CALIBRATE a TV and then LEAVE IT ALONE.
I also calibrate my home audio by using test tracks with a microphone and frequency analyzer.
I tune the room for flat response.
I MAY have to use a parametric EQ to get rid of the typical bass bloating MODES that many home audio rooms have due to the shape of typical rooms.
I may have to bi-amp or in my case I have four separate amplification units in my main rack.
Once everything is adjusted FLAT and the soundstage is PERFECT I LEAVE IT ALONE.
Once you have accurate sound that puts on a great performance and sounds a LOT like real instruments---why would you screw with it?
Your analogy is false.
Once CALIBRATED I don't adjust EITHER my audio or video as a rule.
Calibration is your friend.
Look into it some time.
Your ears and eyes will thank you.
If you continually mess around with your bass and treble to "make it sound right" then your set is screwed up!

 

Have not had tone controls for 40 years not even thought about them, but how anyone can put a graphic equaliser between them and the music is beyond me.

 

At low levels, I enjoy the loudness control. Don't you?

 

Many amplifiers have a built-in loudness compensation curve even if it is not explicitly mentioned as a feature or given an on/off button. And this is going back to at least the 1940s, thanks to the Fletcher-Munson curves published in the '30s.

 

On a cheap table radio---maybe.
On a full range accurate big setup---I HATE bass boost at low volumes.
Mud is STILL mud and that includes bass boost.
My big set sounds wonderful at tiny volume levels so in my setup both Fletcher AND Munson can take a hike.
I don't need them at all and told them to get lost years ago.