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
The tone controls of my Sansui AU 7700 are very good...

I dont use them now because all my embeddings external controls are in place...

I use a filter control  tough...

Am i guilty?

😊


Yes you are mahgister.

Everyone actually has a type of tone control. It is called a volume control.
The frequency response of our heads changes with volume. The recording was mixed at a certain volume and if you want to hear what the engineer heard you have to match that volume. Recordings done at high volume will sound dull if you listen to them at low volume. Recording done at lower volumes will start sounding harsh if you crank them up. Try playing a string quartet at rock and roll levels and the sound will cut your throat. The trick is to fine the volume that sounds right to you. 
If you have a true hi end preamp tone controls are not needed.

I assume you are kidding. 
I’m in on tone controls after 30 foolish years of rejection. I’ve discovered to my great disappointment that my hearing above 10k has diminished. A boost at 10k plus brings the shimmer back. Luxman offers this in a very high quality manner. 
4425, get yourself an audiogram and a room control system and you can match your hearing loss exactly. Not kidding!