Are tone controls worth a second look ?

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.

6550C, completely untrue of the Beatles! They were not around for the stereo mixes because they only valued the mono mixes, but they were certainly aware of every noise they were creating. Better read up!

On further note, I believe that at one time, even the mention of tone controls was considered sacrilegious by the audiophile community. At least, this is what I have garnered from the various threads and publications that I have read. Quite, frankly, who the heck cares what anyone has to say, if you want tone controls, go for it!!

Hi Cyclonucman, The Beatles did not even tour that much after 1966. One major reason is they were not able to play allot of the studio tracks live. George Martin was sticking things on the record that left the band scared to try.

Good tone controls are great. However, they are by no mean short-cut nor remedy to achieving a great sounding well balanced system--this basic, needs to be worked on first as priority. Better controls of today in form of equalizer/linearizer do not change the tonal balance of the system. Nor do they add any kind of detectable distortion or coloration in it. What they do is correct less than stellar recordings (at their exact deficient frequencies) rendering them to be much more enjoyable to listen to. Purist or no purist, this to me is what this hobby is all about.