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
I too feel tone controls have been given a bad rap. Sure, they might degrade transparency somewhat, but if the overall effect is net positive for your listening needs, room conditions, etc...well, a net positive is a net positive!

Tone controls used carefully and without excess can avoid much of the problem that their overuse causes. I find sometimes a just a little tip toward 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock in the bass and/or treble is all that is needed to bring a recording into balance. You seldom should have to go much further than that.

Tone control use is usually less negative in effect for the bass, which most rooms can use a little fine tuning on anyway. It may also save you the trouble of spending large amounts of resources on room treatments, which while a worthwhile goal, may be impractical, expensive, unaesthically pleasing, etc..

Go for it, but do try to make some no or low cost changes that might work, including experimentation with speaker placement and toe-in.

Jeff Delman
www.value-audio.com
I have a really difficult room and a wish
I could buy a good quality tube preamp
with defeatable tone controls
please refer to this archived thread for good discussion on this issue.
http://audiogo5.iserver.net/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&986669323&read&keyw&zztone=control

You should use the forum search engine to find other 40 posts on the subject. The search summary apppears here:
http://audiogo5.iserver.net/cgi-bin/fr_srch.pl?&1&procsrch&3&4&
I find many LPs are not balanced the same left and right channel. A balance control also comes in handy.