I like my system flat, no tone controls, no eq..........what is your preference, and why.


A poster on another thread here has encouraged me to post this. Been an audio professional and a hobbyist for 50 tears. I had my time with eq, tone controls ( even reverb and time delay units ). I am currently at the point where I need nothing to alter the recordings I listen to, nor to compensate for room aberrations. I have spent lots of money on equipment , had equipment on loan, of all types ( pretty much a bit of everything, for the most part ) and I have tweaked, and tweaked, and tweaked. I have recently tooled down to a much simpler and less expensive system, and I find I am the happiest I have ever been. Might be my amp, my passive unit, my speakers...…….yes, all of that. Yes, all of that is important, but it is the system synergy that has made me realize that changing anything with an eq or tone controls took me further from that synergy, that balance. I accept, and enjoy my recordings for what they are. Some better than others ( sq ). But, I am enjoying the brilliance of all the studio work put into them,  exactly as they were intended to be listened to. This is me. I do not believe in right or wrong, better or worse, newer vs older, yada yada yada. I have believed, and have stated, particularly in this hobby, to each his own. I hear fuse differences, power cable differences, etc. Some believe I was born a bat. I am happy of my gift, not just hearing well, but through the years, teaching myself " what it is I like ", which is the key for most of us. I am not sure where this thread will go, but I put it out there, and hope folks will drop in, even though much of it might have been stated before in other threads. Thank you A'gon family, be well, and Enjoy ! MrD.
mrdecibel

Showing 3 responses by ron17

@gibsonian

 I wasn't inferring that having tone controls means one needs to adjust for every recording...I'm all for tone controls (if you need them).  I meant I prefer to adjust EQ for the problems with the speaker/room interaction one time and then take the good recordings with the bad...not fuss over each recording.  I'm OCD enough....lol
Hey Mr.D nice thread,

I use EQ because of the room/speaker interaction not to compensate for poor recordings. I have measured a peak @ 42hz in my room that I have not been able to eliminate by speaker placement or room treatments.....When a bass player plays an open E (lowest note on a conventional stand up or electric bass is 41hz) and that note plays louder than all of the other notes being played, it's very annoying. If you are lucky enough to have a good sounding room that needs no room treatment or EQ I envy you!   I think adjusting tone controls for every recording would drive me nuts. I hear huge differences between poor recordings, great recordings, heavily compressed recordings etc... I just don't get the uneven deep base I use to.
I think 2 channel purest believe using EQ or tone controls degrade the signal.  Using room treatments, proper speaker placement and fine tuning with cables is their cup of tea....To boost midrange or treble frequencies defusers are used.  To reduce energy, absorbers or traps are used.  After years of experimenting with both schools of thought I have concluded that whatever works best for you, your room and your music is the way to go.