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
Permission?
We don’ need no stinkin’ permission.

It's in the implementation. The future "super" Loki will give the Cello Palette a run for the money.
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.
I’m a tone control person. I use a passive preamp when I want/need to.

Why not have the feature, makes no sense to me NOT to have it..

If the recording need a little bass bump, you just toss the recording?

Really what do you do if the recording isn’t what you like?
BUY another one?
Make another one?
Turn the TONE knobs? YUP that’s me..

The people that scream NO tone control, get in their cars/PU/SUVs/RV and what do you do? Turn the music up and play with the Fader, Balance, Bass boost, Treble.. You folks are funny.. WE ALL use it..

Remember, when they added springs to TT, LOL now it’s all the rage, they call it vibration control, great idea, 70+ year old idea.. BUT a great idea none the less.. My Thoren, Garrard, Sparta, Russco, Fairchild, QRK, and EMTs all had bladder/springs vibration control. The youngest in the bunch is 65 years old.. Older is better..

Tone control BIG PLUS 1 from me, it’s an OLDER idea, with new TEC.
Great stuff, DSP, PEQ, on the fly monitor, on the fly correction...
BASS Heaven, NOW...

What it tilt control? Did I read that right? TILT? 

Regards
Frankly, I couldn't give a hoot over tone controls. I think it's only one time out of a hundred where I find a recording's EQ to be foul enough to complain.  I actually enjoy the different EQs the producers and artists deliver.  They lend a recording personality.  Distortion and fuzz, though, are another issue entirely.
I've been thinking about this lately and I'd like to point out that it's not just artists and producers who make recordings. I'm happy to compare different high-end recording of Haydn Piano Trios or the various reissues of, say, Exile on Main Street. I don't use tone controls for anything like that. I also listen, though, to plenty of music that was not professionally released or was dubiously mixed; consider the incredible collection of Grateful Dead audience recordings on Archive. Some of those are gnarly and need some help. (I used to do a lot of Dead tape trading, speaking of a long time ago, and one of my Nak decks had pitch control, thank god; I got some doozies in the mail.) Also, recordings today can come from youtube or all kinds of social media, and many need some EQ assistance to be listenable. I bet many folks on 'Gon are just as qualified to "produce" a recording as the amateurs making recordings in their basements. And, as a couple people have said, what's the harm in listening to the sound you like? 

I didn't mean to type that much! I've been looking at preamps lately and thinking about those ... knobs. (Balance control--I like that!)