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The use of equipment as "tone controls"

Several times in my Audiogon reading and posting over the last couple of years, I've noticed this or that contributor commenting along the lines of: "You shouldn't use your amp/cables/cartridge/whatever as a tone control."

I assume what this is supposed to mean is that there is some absolutely correct sound out there, and we ought not have audio equipment of any kind that deviates from that absolutely correct sound.

I might be able to buy into this if we were listening to live instruments (although their sound is, of course, affected by the space in which they are played, the position of the listener, etc., so is not itself "absolute"). But we're not listening to live music. We're listening to recordings. There are microphones, cables, recording equipment, mastering equipment, storage medium, etc, all of which come between us and the original sound--not to mention the taste and perception of the engineers, producers, etc. In that sense, what we hear coming out of our speakers is all illusion, anyway. And the illusion comes in quite a few "flavors." On one system I had, Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard sounded like he was in my living room. But Leonard Bernstein conducting the NY Phil in the early 60's was so shrill it made me run screaming from the room. In my current system, Bill Evans doesn't sound as "right there" as he used to (now I'm a few of rows back, yet still quite happy), but Leonard Bernstein doesn't make my ears bleed, either.

How did I work that? I experimented with different equipment. I used the equipment as "tone controls" (I guess). It's all respectible equipment: ARC, VTL, BAT, Cardas, etc. Maybe it reduced the "accuracy" of the reproduction of Bill Evans, but it increased the "accuracy" of the reproduction of Leonard Bernstein. Maybe. But who knows for sure?

We all tailor the sound of our systems to suit our preferences. What's wrong with that? And, most equipment has it's own sound character. That seems like a good thing, to me. It allows us to tailor our sound.

Now what we REALLY need is a good set of tone controls on our fancy pre-amps, so we can really tailor our sound!

Food for comment?
eweedhome

Showing 4 responses by eweedhome

eweedhome OP
227 posts
 
Okay, so what pre-amps of note out there have tone controls? Some McIntosh do. I snagged a 2nd hand c2200 very recently (don't even have it yet), but have been somewhat pained to note that it seems to have gotten mixed reviews among the Audiogon crowd. And a friendly source told me about an updated "remake" of the Citation One, from VAS. Has anybody heard that? The Absolute Sound seemed to like it (although I read just a bit of hesitation into that review...maybe it was just me). As far as I can tell, that's about it from "high end" land--at least in terms of tube gear of which I am aware.

Is there such thing as an "outboard" tone control, that you would plug in through the tape loop (I guess)?
eweedhome OP
227 posts
 
Glenn-Garza: A year or two ago, I went on "the great speaker hunt," which involved listening to speakers at various audio stores within 250 miles of where I live. I was quite surprised at the number of systems that I heard that, to me, sounded upleasant, even irritating. In ALL cases, what was unpleasant was that the systems sounded too bright. You could certainly hear LOADS of detail, but there was nothing "real" about the sound. Hearing lots of detail is very exciting I suppose, but (to paraphrase Wireless200), at a certain point, you want the "steak"...assuming you know what "steak" tastes like. (I wonder if it's true...as I've heard some speculate, that many "audiophiles" have actually heard relatively little live music, especially of an acoustic--as opposed to electric--nature?)
eweedhome OP
227 posts
 
Halcro, tell us the speakers that sound like music (and take up less than one hand).

Wireless200 - As reported (I think), I just bought a 2nd hand Mac 2200 pre-amp so I could get tone controls and, I hope, a decent, non-bright sound. Any hope? What kind of Mac amp do you use? I would love to be able to sit back and "listen to the music for extended periods...and not analyze my system constantly." Isn't that what this is supposed to be about...eventually? It sure seems hard to get things set up that way.
eweedhome OP
227 posts
 
Phd - Why is it so hard for us (or some of us, anyway) to learn the lesson, as you say: "don't let people push you into what they consider acceptable high end gear"? It's so easy, even after years of experience that should leave one smarter, to fall into the lemming-like trap of paying too much attention to other people's ears. I've been fooling with this hobby, on and off, for nearly 25 years, and I'm still absolutely mystified, with some regularity, at how some piece of gear can sound really nice in one setting, and even unpleasant in another (especially my own house!). And vice versa. And the same is not infrequently true of recordings. As far as I can tell, in the end, experimentation in one's own home, with listening sessions longer than a quick half hour, is the only way to get yourself from point A to point B with some level of satisfaction.
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