Are tone controls worth a second look ?

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.

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?

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.

Firm believer in tone controls. Thinking of looking at more sophisticated frequency adjustment options. There appear to be some long standing companies out there. Has anyone had any experience with products from Klark Teknik? Would also be interested in hearing what products beyond amplifier / preamplifier tone controls that others are using.

The thing with tone controls though is that when I had them, I'd experiment with them when the receiver was new, but would eventually find a spot that I liked and leave them set where they are for every recording.

Now given that high-end equalizers that would be of sufficient quality not to wreck the signal would likely cost more than the other cables & tweaks that we buy, which have as a basic goal to protect against the unwanted filtering out of frequencies (and thus not harm the signal, but improve it), what is the need for tone controls? In either case, I'm finding what I like, then leaving it be.

I agree that cables & tweaks are the modern equivalent of tone controls. But, they do a better job than tone controls, and in the pursuit of good sound, it's all about what works better, not necessarily what works more easily.