2. amps-preamps
  3. 175792-134479

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
fiesta75
1,378 posts
 

+1 russ69 for SAE!

slofut
22 posts
 

+1 for Yamaha Natural Sound loudness control. Is it not the one with variable compensation? Been a while since I’ve had one but if I could find an outboard example I’d buy it in a heartbeat for lower level listening. I also have a nad tuner/preamp with a decent loudness control.

Many of the examples mentioned are more eq than fletcher munson compensation, you don’t want the same boost at higher volumes.

Got excited about the Schiit Loki Mini only to find out it wasn’t tapered with volume. So it’s mostly just an eq? Am I correct? I think The only outboard FM loudness control I’ve heard of is a vintage Macintosh unit?

I hate to plug in another device in the signal path but I would in this case.

uzj100
23 posts
 

 

uzj100
23 posts
 

Using an SAE 2400 parametric...

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,894 posts
 

My Helmholtz "mechanical equalizer" with one hundred adjusted tubes resonators and diffusers tuned by my ears, use my ears not a microphone, and not some testing frequency but a large bandwidth spectral set which is called an instrument timbre or voice to guide me in the process of acoustic optimization..

This mechanical equalization work to optimize the room /speakers ---> relation and this grid of Helmhotz resonators and diffusers modify the pressure zones distribution in the room being a permament WORKING part of my room...

This mechanical equalizer is useful to fine tune the relation " from the room TO the speakers with my ears"...

 

But i can use also with it a useful tool to complement it : an electronical equalizer...

Why?

Because with it i will fine tune the relation "from the speakers TO the room without my ears" using not instrument timbre for my ears, but a tested frequency for a microphone and using an intergated pink noise generator in the Sansui  and an automatic equalization process....

Then the two process are complementary and add something the other CANNOT add ...

But unbeknowst to most people electronical equalization is not enough ALONE for helping our specific ears to recreate all acoustic factors like listener envelopment for example... And mechanical equalization so wonderful it is, is not "accurate" nor perfect but is like  our imperfect ears are imperfect ...But imperfection is not a defect here it is the way our bbrain interpret sound experience... 

my dream now is buying this:

 

Only a mechanical equalizer or only an electronical equalizer is not enough to OPTIMIZE a small Speakers/ room/ears complex relation...

Acoustic is the sleeping princess all the pieces of gear are only the 7 working dwarves...

 

 

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