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Tone controls- to use or not?

Thanks to years of playing in bands, and more recently working in a noisy environment, I've come to the sad realisation that my 40-year old ears no longer have their original upper frequency response. Adding a bit of "treble" on my amp's tone controls helps, but I'm normally loathe to use these controls.

Should I be looking at changing my setup to incorporate "brighter" sounding components, or is adding a little treble with the tone controls legitimate?

My system is a Cambridge 640C player, NAD c720 stereo receiver (based on c320 amp) and B&W DM602 speakers, Monster cable IC's and heavy guage "Kordz" (Australian) copper speaker wires.
carl109

Showing 4 responses by eldartford

eldartford
4,262 posts
 
As Reubent said..."Use the tone control. That's what it is there for".

You might find an equalizer to be more effective because you wouldn't be stuck with the "hinge" frequency that the preamp designer chose. For example, if your hearing rolls off at 14KHz a tone control which cuts in at 3KHz is not ideal.

If you visit an audioligist (person who prescribes hearing aids) you can get a precise plot of your hearing frequency response, and then you could put the appropriate correction into the equalizer.

A good inexpensive equalizer is the Behringer DEQ2496.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Atmasphere...The Behringer DEQ2496 does its equalization in a DSP chip, and the EQ function (or any of the other functions) can be bypassed. If that isn't good enough just turn off the power and you get a hard bypass (input connected to output).
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Atmasphere...Behringer makes many pieces of equipment. For some I agree with you, but in some cases it is sour grapes. But have you heard the DEQ2496? I hear no bad effect of having it in the loop, and it greatly improves the overall sound by compensating room effects. Furthermore, it's worth the price just for the spectrum analyser. I suggest that people buy it for that feature (to help with room treatment and speaker placement) and let them come to their own conclusion about leaving it in the loop for listening.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Atmasphere...For equalization and other kinds of sound processing digital technology, like the Behringer, is far superior to analog. Software can implement functions that are simply impossible with analog circuitry. In the DEQ2496 processing is done by a 32-bit floating point module. You can input and output digital data, but the A/D and D/A converters, should you care to use them, are excellent 24-bit hardware running at 96KHz.

Your really ought to spring for a DEQ2496 and see for yourself what it can do. Charge it off to your business as research.
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