2. misc-audio
  3. 135979-20253

We give up perspective to avoid tone controls

Hi Everyone,

While most of my thread starters are meant to be fun, I realize this one is downright provocative, so I'm going to try extra hard to be civil. 

One thing that is implicit in the culture of "high end audio" is the disdain for any sort of electronic equalization. The culture disdains the use of anything other than a volume control. Instead we attempt to change everything to avoid this. Speakers, speaker cables, amplifiers, and power cords. We'll shovel tens of thousands of dollars of gear in and out of our listening room to avoid them. 

Some audiophiles even disdain any room acoustic treatments. I heard one brag, after saying he would never buy room treatments: "I will buy a house or not based on how good the living room is going to sound." 

What's weird to me, is how much equalization is done in the mastering studio, how different pro speakers may sound from what you have in your listening room, and how much EQ happens within the speakers themselves. The RIAA circuits in all phono preamps IS a complicated three state EQ, we're OK with that, but not tone controls? 

What attracts us to this mind set? Why must we hold ourselves to this kind of standard? 

Best,


E
erik_squires

Showing 1 response by twochannelami

twochannelami
5 posts
 
 To me it is simple. The best we can do is try and put the band in the room with us. Whether you live in a closet or Carnegie Hall, To try and make your closet not sound like a closet I suppose is reasonable enough but intentionally adding color to the signal when you have spent all that money to keep it pure is a contradiction to the purist in me. And yes I am that guy who thinks opinion has nothing to do with it. Whatever the component the one that best replicates the band standing there wins, like it or not.
 To color the sound in a way that for the moment is pleasing but not accurate will over time give you less pleasure as your brain knows better than you what is real and those beautiful moments when you are sitting in front of your speakers and your jaw drops will begin to diminish. Stay away from the signal path. There should be a law!
 My first post! Hello all!
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