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I miss my Loudness Button and Tone Controls....

So I recently upgraded my system to a Rogue Audio Sphinx integrated amplifier, V2.

Prior to this purchase I was using a NAD C162 preamp, and an Emotive UA-200 amplifier.

After a month of listening, I have to say, I miss the tone controls and the loudness feature on the old NAD pre-amp, especially when listening at lower volumes. The Rogue amp sounds great when played at a minimum of 50% of its output, but at lower volumes, it just seems flat. I do use a sub (SVS SB-2000 pro, and I'm using a very efficient speaker (Zu Audio DW's).

I've toyed with the idea of buying an EQ of some sort that has a bypass so that I can boost some of the frequencies when listening at lower volumes, and then bypass when I listening at higher volumes.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone experience anything similar? I'm about to pack and sell the Rogue amp, as the cons outweigh the pros for me.

 

 

barkeyzee1
fiesta75
1,378 posts
 

When my equipment had a loudness button, I rarely used it, tone controls a little. Only used the loudness button to show off when I had visitors. Other than that, the sound was much clearer and detailed with it out! Once I found a good parametric equalizer, that was the best for slight adjustments but prefer nothing in the loop for most music.

phd
1,320 posts
 

I have found that electronic tone controls are far less offensive than mechanical pots that are used for tone controls. Given that, on some recordings it is nice to make suttle adjustments that render the music more listenable.

drmcdanielsdc
5 posts
 

I was in the same boat as you sir! Even so far as to pull up the Cello Audio Palette circuit diagram and see what was so good about it.

There are a couple simple solutions:

A. get the Schiit tone controls

B. get a DAC with LOUDNESS feature.

I went with an RME as my DAC, it has a unique loudness feature. Google the manual for it. It changes with volume. I also remapped the EQ front button to turn loudness on or off. I use a different Preamp.

Have fun and take care, let us know what you get. It’s a common problem.

Posted and saw your phono problem, looks like Schiit for now. Or get another Preamp. I'm A/B ing the RME, I have the Anniversary edition for the extra analog input to run my phono. Will let you know how it goes. 

teboerio's avatar
teboerio
30 posts
 

Styleman . . . Sorry, You misspeak

The MA252 comes with electronic tone controls for loudness, bass and treble.

The controls can be set separately for each of the 4 inputs and can be turned on or  off - while keeping the levels at the desired setting - with the push of a button. 

So much better than knobs that stick out - Except only bass and treble can be adjusted, not the five different tone settings on the MA352 🙄
 

 

mirolab
208 posts
 

I love having an EQ for vinyl playback. So many 70’s-80’s LPs have the low end rolled off, and it’s amazing how much it can be restored. I’ve been using a studio EQ for this. The Vintage Audio, Skyline M3D. It’s 6 bands of very wide overlapping bands. It’s a mastering EQ with gentle curves and minimal phase shift.  It’s extremely musical sounding. Unfortunately for HiFi, it’s balanced operation only. I’m using the XLR outs of my Parasound JC3 preamp, and go balanced into my main preamp. It’s just SO easy (and fun) to re-master a mediocre sounding LP, and make it sound amazing. Forget all your precious audiofool rules about EQ. This EQ makes music sound BETTER... when the source needs the help. On great sounding pressings, I use its hardwire bypass. BTW... it’s $1400.

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