I miss my Loudness Button and Tone Controls....


So I recently upgraded my system to a Rogue Audio Sphinx integrated amplifier, V2.

Prior to this purchase I was using a NAD C162 preamp, and an Emotive UA-200 amplifier.

After a month of listening, I have to say, I miss the tone controls and the loudness feature on the old NAD pre-amp, especially when listening at lower volumes. The Rogue amp sounds great when played at a minimum of 50% of its output, but at lower volumes, it just seems flat. I do use a sub (SVS SB-2000 pro, and I'm using a very efficient speaker (Zu Audio DW's).

I've toyed with the idea of buying an EQ of some sort that has a bypass so that I can boost some of the frequencies when listening at lower volumes, and then bypass when I listening at higher volumes.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone experience anything similar? I'm about to pack and sell the Rogue amp, as the cons outweigh the pros for me.

 

 

barkeyzee1

I have been looking at the JBL SA750 integrated amp, lots of features packed inside.  It doesn’t have tone controls, but some have suggested that the DSP the same, sounds complicated to me.  That’s been part of my hold-up.  I’m not glad you’re having problems, but good to hear of your experience. I’ll guess I’ll stick with that my vintage Sansui, for now.  
 

Back in the day I owned a Technics 8055 equalizer with a spectrum analyzer. Very cool, albeit blingy, piece of kit.

For those on here that use surround sound formats, the Lyngdorfs MP-40..50 and 60’s all have Tone controls. Bass and Treble and they are adjustable. You can set the Bass adjustments at whatever you wish,,, Adjustments centering’s @ at 50, or 350, or 500 HTZ etc (whatever you like)..., likewise with the Treble. Plus Surround speakers volumes, Center volume, LFE volumes.. all these adjustments are on the " home" page.

You also have (conveniently on the home page) a "voicing map" which can be used like a old time equalizer. I have one voicing for movies, one for news, one for music etc.

All these adjustments are also on the App, so I just leave my lab top hooked up and make quick tweeks during movies, albums etc. Love this Lyngdorf.

Only wish is some of these needed to be incorporated on their Remote Control..

+1 paulcreed, the RME ADI 2 FS has everything you want plus stuff you will have a ball figuring out, plus it can be ran directly to a amp, no pre amp necessary.  

I must admit, I do miss my tonal controls and regret getting rid of several eq's over time, but don't miss the loudness button, just use the mute button nowadays. 

You've pressed one of my hot buttons with this post. Of course you should have tone controls; that very few higher-end units (preamps, integrated amps, whatever) come with them anymore is, IMO, one of the consequences of audiophile pretentiousness that only benefits the manufacturers. Is there a degradation in SQ when tone controls are engaged? Maybe, a tiny bit. And yes, we're perfectionists. But can you really hear the difference? Try it was a unit that has a bypass button: set the tone controls to flat, then use the bypass to judge the sound with and without routing the circuit path through the tone control pots. 

Here's the thing. Mahgister always advocates for rigorous (some would say obsessive; check out the photos of his system!) room acoustics treatment. Yes, room acoustics are hugely important. The room is one of the very most important components in your music system, no question. BUT...not all recordings are created equal! Tone controls give you the option of adjusting for a recording that is harsh in the upper midrange, or lacking in bass, or a host of other deficits that would be, shall we say, grossly inconvenient to do by re-arranging one's entire acoustic space for each new piece of music. Someone said in this thread that doing so with tone controls is just playing recording engineer, implying that it's a childishly naive thing to even wish to be able to try. Fine; be that way. 

As for the "loudness" control, yes, there's the Fletcher-Munson curve, if you want empirical support for the usefulness of this tool. Of course, good tone controls will enable you to do what a loudness button will do. By "good" I mean something like the "semi-parametric" tone controls on the NAD 7600, which allow you to select three different frequency ranges with a toggle switch that can then be dialed in with the bass or treble pot. Another approach is three controls, like on some of the Marantz integrated amps.

One more thing. IMO, micro-adjusting the balance is very important for fine-tuning the soundstage. Therefore, I consider a powered balance that can be adjusted from the sweet spot using the remote a necessary feature of any amp; I would not consider an amp that lacked this feature.