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Are tone controls worth a second look ?


Are tone controls still prohibited from ''high end''audio?

Seems to me that with all of the advances in electronic design, they starting to make sense again.

In my humble opinion, tone controls are not unlike adding, or substracting sonic flavor to music reproduction. Like switching interconnects or speaker cables that will affect the sound in X or Y manner.

I am not reffering to a technical comparison between tone controls and cables, but rather that their effect could be similar. When you think of it, cables have their own colors. And we pay dearly for this without the opportunity of a ''tone defeat'' button.

What do you think?
sonicbeauty
rwwear
2,867 posts
 
All such controls as well as balance add distortion to the signal unless they are done in the digital domain and then the chips must be of excellent quality. Sometimes the distortion is not noticeable.
polk432
1,142 posts
 
Unless you want to speaker roll, tone controls are good if they are a good component. I have a DBX 14/10 EQ, Cary tube amp and pre, with Linn sources. It is mostly used for attenuation rather than boost. I hear nothing that degrades the signal, hooked up to the system or not. Good luck.
tpreaves's avatar
tpreaves
2,686 posts
 
There are lots of mfgrs that still use tone controls.
foster_9
1,638 posts
 
The MC MA 6900 is one I owned with tone controls. In general to me it was one dimensional and flat with or without the tone controls.
bryoncunningham
890 posts
 
I use the digital tone controls on my Meridian processor with good results. But I have heard digital tone controls that sound terrible. I guess, like so many things in audio, it's largely a matter of the quality of the implementation.
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