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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
2chnlben
595 posts
 
It's hell to get old! I was frustrated because my system's soundstage was of center. I kept trying to tweak the left speaker placement to get a central image. What I have found is that I have some hearing loss in my right ear. When I cup my right ear the image is dead-center. I put the left speaker back in its original position and I now use the balance control to make the necessary adjustments. It only goes downhill from here....
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knownothing
1,536 posts
 
The simple answer is if it sounds better to you, use the tone control.

Unfortunately, if hearing is nearly gone in a particular frequency, it is difficult to compensate with a simple tone control without over emphasizing the lower treble frequencies compared to the rest of the sound spectrum.

Some cables are brighter sounding and some are darker. Silver wire can often bring the upper octaves forward a bit.

When you feel it is time to upgrade your whole system - look for the tonal balance that sounds best to you. It may be time to focus on the midrange and all the wonderful nuance, timbre and tonal colors available there. That's what I am starting to do ;)
cleaneduphippy
323 posts
 
Definely use your tone control. Beyond that, if you know you have hearing loss at certain frequencies, you might want to add an equalizer to your system.
s7horton
1,077 posts
 
I know most audiophiles like to stay true to the signal to see what the product can really do. (meaning no tone controls) But, like others have stated, if tone controls make the sound better for you, why would you not do it?
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.
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