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  3. 162407-20253

Message from the Past: We were never against tone controls

For those of us who started being audiophiles a very long time ago, we have a message for you all:

We were never against tone controls. We were against poor sounding tone controls, and many of them were. From bass / treble nobs to 1/3 octave equalizers, they all were almost universally garbage.

That was decades ago. Now things are in some cases much better, or at least, not nearly as bad sounding as a poor recording.  Stop using guidelines from the 1980's to decide what to do.

You are not obligated to sit through a performance without adjusting the music to suite your tastes. It’s OK to boost the bass, or turn down the treble for your liking. You have all the permission you need.
erik_squires

Showing 6 responses by erik_squires

erik_squires OP
15,663 posts
 
Generally anything between the source and the amplifier will suck the life out of the music.


I must differ.  There's no life sucking here. Even with less decent tone controls, they usually give more than they take. Like @4425 stated, above, the Luxman tone controls are superb. I don't hear any of the previous tone control issues, so I have to believe Luxman doesn't have a lock here, but that other makers can also do good things with tone controls. 
erik_squires OP
15,663 posts
 
Not the only brand, twoleftears .

Several did this.  The M&K SB speakers for instance had an impressive amount of built in tone controls, executed by fairly high number of parts in the crossover.  Ative speakers often have one of the best options too, to compensate for room placement.
erik_squires OP
15,663 posts
 
@three_easy_payments

I'm trolling. It's obvious I'm trolling, and yet, people will allow themselves to be trolled. :)
erik_squires OP
15,663 posts
 
If you don't have tone controls, how can you say you have a high end preamp?  You don't.  You have a mid-fi preamp that is missing features.
erik_squires OP
15,663 posts
 
Yeah, I know, it's *knob but one of my biggest fans, EBM, commented before I could fix it.
erik_squires OP
15,663 posts
 
If you have a true hi end preamp tone controls are not needed.


Yeah, amazing how that Aritficial Intelligence automatically adjusts for my tastes, my room and recordings.  It like just knows how to fix up my Stop Making Sense CD so it no longer sounds terrible.
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