Tone controls- to use or not?

Mr M- If you'll re-read my post, you'll note I said the definition has(since coined in the 80's) been watered down to nothingness. Your points prove mine precisely(Thank you!). Further: I offered no "hypothesis" at all about anyone's system. I only suggested he make himself happy in his listening room, and the hell with anyone else's opinions.

Shazam "and what things will agitate you or cause more damage. ".
Interesting question.
If someone has a 3dB loss at 5-7,000hz will boosting that range cause additional damage OR annoyance?
I would think that would be a matter of absolute volume level. If he listens at 75db, I can't see a boost of a few more dB causing any problem, IMHO.

Cdc - correct. The thing I find disturbing about the notion that someone with high frequency hearing loss should not use tone controls to boost the high frequencies is that it is insulting to people with a hearing handicap.

I have always thought that a good equalizer should be part of every system.The supporting reasoning is that every different artist has a different recording engineer in the studio. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't every recording studio have a means of altering the sound to suit that particular engineer's ears? EVERYONE'S EARS ARE DIFFERENT!!!The person or persons that say that the "best system" needs no further equalization to compensate for the absences or excesses of certain frequencies in recorded material are wrong. Plain and simple, while some material may sound better without altering the recording engineer's original settings, there are many that will sound better with some slight adjustments. If it has them, tweaking the tone controls on a particular receiver or preamp will only cut or add at certain frequencies. Don't take this the wrong way, but if I had the system that you have, I really wouldn't be all that concerned about being a "purist" and going without equalization. Buy a good equalizer!

I think the problem here is that the term 'good equalizer' in this day and age is a bit oxymoronic. Back in the old days, Harmon Kardon had a preamp call the Citation One, which employed switched tone controls, i.e. the tone controls were built up out of rotary switches. This allowed them to be truly flat when set to the flat position. I've not seen a modern EQ unit that had that sort of attention to detail.

I've had my hands on some fairly good units, both the analog and digital Accuphase units, which are arguably amoungst the cream of the crop in equalizers. Despite serious room anomolies that the EQ units could correct (somewhat, there was a bass node that they couldn't touch), the system sounded remarkably better using no EQ at all... by 'better': more impact, greater soundstage, more detail, smoother overall sound...