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Tone Controls

I have recently rethought the issue of tone controls. How many recordings do you own that you don’t like, but a little tweaking and it may be a different story?

How are using tone controls different than when they master the CD in the final process? I have a particular CD that I like and on one song it has a slight glare one it that I feel was missed in the mastering process. Without tone controls, there is nothing you can do after the fact.

Tone controls seem to be taboo in the high-end arena; I think they have been given a bad rap. We were sold the reasoning for no tone controls and we bought it.

If the tone controls have no affect on the signal when left in the middle, such as McIntosh does, no harm no foul, but a useful “tool”.

Someone may have a system that caters best to a certain type or style of music but falls short elsewhere, possibly with tone controls this could be overcome.

Any other thoughts?
brianmgrarcom

Showing 1 response by phild

phild
603 posts
 
I'm not positive, but I don't think most people avoid tone controls because of what they do...they avoid them because they involve more circuitry being added into the signal path. Most high-end equipment designs try to have the shortest, most simple signal paths, so they avoid tone controls.

If they're already on your equipment, you might as well use them if you prefer. And you're right...almost all recordings are EQ'd to some point...some quite drastically...especially rock/pop recordings.
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