Are tone controls worth a second look ?

Gotta agree with Joe (Trelja)'s post. Just look at the posts in the forums looking for warm cables, power cords that improve bass, tubes that have a lush midrange, etc. I don't have tone controls per se in my equipment, but the components, cables and tubes in my system have been matched to suit my taste rather than to serve sonic neutrality (and to the detriment of my wallet). I did have an equalizer years ago before I started getting too serious about this hobby, but I must admit I really only used it to jack up the volume a bit in my system rather than for any real tonal adjustment.

hear! hear! TRELJA!!

Orpheus10, artist don't record music! Recording engineers record music. Mastering engineers, record producers and even music label executives generally have more say about the final "sound" of an album than the musicians. That being the situation, a plausible case can be made that the end listener should also have some control over the sound.

BTW, EQs are very flexible. If not used properly they can make things far worst then when you started. Also, good sounding EQs are not inexpensive.

Gotta agree with Onhwy61. Now-a-days, it is common to do an album and the players are never in the same building together. Even the Beatles would step out of the studio and not really know what the song would sound like or even what the song would be. Most pop is just bits and pieces stuck together by a producer and engineer. They say when you buy an album, you are really buying a producer.

What my recent trial experience says, that goes along with what Trelja said. As a 'sort of Audiophile myself' I thought that Loudness, Bass and Treble controls are ridiculous functions and they go against the 'high-end audiophile norms'.

But when I tried a vintage Accuphase Pre-Amp borrowed from a friend switching from my Bryston Pre BP25DA, all my previous ideas got changed. My Power-Amp is Bryston 7BssT. At normal listening volume I didn't notice any change, but late in the night, when rest of the family retired to bed and I was not allowed to play LOUD any more, I had to lower the volume. I started missing the beauty of the music. (I used to think that this frustration is normal and I take it as 'name of the game' if I continue listening that late in the night). I ventured into using these hidden knobs. I pushed the loudness control and oh my God! the beauty came back and I thoroughly enjoyed the music even at much lower volume.

I think Bass and Treble controls may also be treated as convenient options for compensating the weaknesses of any of the components in the chain, IMHO.

Having Tone Controls in the system gives you the options. Use them or don't.

BTW Accuphase Pre-Amps come with these useful options as standards.