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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
cyclonicman
693 posts
 
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!!
6550c
393 posts
 
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.
bvdiman
491 posts
 
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.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 
Sonicbeauty, I responded to your question. There have been many responses to my answer.
For me, the equipment is a vehicle to reach my destination which is "the soul of the music".
Since the definition of "audiophile" places the emphasis on the equipment as opposed to the music; maybe I am the one who is not a "genuine" audiophile?
ikonetic
25 posts
 
There is an easy way to have the best of both worlds. simply buy a seperate 8 or 16 channel mixing board like live bands use and wire it in so you can use it or completely remove it from the curcuit. By the way, when you are listening to a recording, you are not hearing the music as it was played but you are hearing what the sound engineer mixed together from many different sessions.
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