To tone control or not to tone control

I agree with Greg. Look into upgrading your source and making sure that the rest of the room ( cables, speaker placement & room acoustics ) are as good as they get BEFORE adding "unnecessary gadgets". Adding some type of "band aid" will not "heal" the system, it will simply "cover up" the "wound" that still exists. Sean
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You could hook up the Adcom in the tape loop of the CJ and then use the tone controls of the Adcom. Hook the tape out of the CJ to a line level input to the Adcom ( like the AUX in) and the preamp out of the Adcom to the tape in of the CJ. Engage the tape monitor of the CJ and the signal will be going thru the Adcom also. You will need to adjust the level of the Adcom so you don't overload the CJ. Start with the volume on the Adcom down low and the tone controls flat. Then turn it up until you have the same volume level with the CJ tape monitor in or out. When the tape monitor is out, you will be playing straight through the CJ.

The purists in the crowd may abhore this, but if you can doctor some of your bass shy recordings and are happy with the result, enjoy the music. That's what it's all about.

I am in full agreement with Greg and Sean. Tone controls will only add distortion. That is one good reason you don't find them on high end pieces.

I am curious about your comment "Tone controls will only add distortion." What kind of distortion? A well designed tone control will alter the frequency response of the system, and yes, this is a form of distortion. But why would this be worse than changing cables. When people speak of this cable being brighter than that one, or this one having better bass definition than another; isn't that the same thing? Why is trying to change to change the frequency balance of system with cables better or worse than doing the same thing with a tone control? Perhaps it would be easier and cheaper to attempt to alter the response with a slight adjustment of a tone control than to try to achieve this with expensive cables that have no adjustment other than replacement. After all, a tone control can consist of no more than a capacitor or inductor and a variable resistor. I seem to remember Cello offered a tone control system (equalizer) a few years back that was well recieved. While it is true that such equlization systems are generally scorned by the high end community, I bet most don't have any idea how they work, much less understand how they affect the "distortion" of a system.

Tone controls are the next frontier for high end audio. Digital DSP processing has brought the arrival of transparent tone controls. IMO, tone controls are essential for the playback of normally recorded pop/rock on high resolution systems. For a wide variety of reasons, a lot of wonderful music is aggresively recorded. When played back over a hi-rez system, this music will sound shrill. The judicious use of a well designed EQ circuit can make this music much more enjoyable.

Artemus, there are very few consumer oriented preamps w/ EQ capabilities. If you are truly interested in solutions I would suggest you look at a few of the mid-level pro oriented products and run them thru your tape processor loop.