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 1 response by shazam

Carl, get a hearing test done first. A hearing specialist can tell you what frequencies you have problems with and what things will agitate you or cause more damage. You would do the same for your eyes if you were having trouble reading, right?

Second, make sure sure your room acoustics fit what you need. Your difficulty with high end may be because it's being buried in echo or muddied by booming lows. The effect you describe in your second post sounds similar to the problem I was having at one point (blurry/unclear high end because of excessive corner echo). Play with your positioning and ask your dealer if you can try out a handful of acoustic treatments - you may be very surprised at the results.

If you still aren't satisfied, at least you have a better idea of where the problem lies and what the compensation options are.

Good luck!