2. misc-audio
  3. 135979-20253

We give up perspective to avoid tone controls

Hi Everyone,

While most of my thread starters are meant to be fun, I realize this one is downright provocative, so I'm going to try extra hard to be civil. 

One thing that is implicit in the culture of "high end audio" is the disdain for any sort of electronic equalization. The culture disdains the use of anything other than a volume control. Instead we attempt to change everything to avoid this. Speakers, speaker cables, amplifiers, and power cords. We'll shovel tens of thousands of dollars of gear in and out of our listening room to avoid them. 

Some audiophiles even disdain any room acoustic treatments. I heard one brag, after saying he would never buy room treatments: "I will buy a house or not based on how good the living room is going to sound." 

What's weird to me, is how much equalization is done in the mastering studio, how different pro speakers may sound from what you have in your listening room, and how much EQ happens within the speakers themselves. The RIAA circuits in all phono preamps IS a complicated three state EQ, we're OK with that, but not tone controls? 

What attracts us to this mind set? Why must we hold ourselves to this kind of standard? 

Best,


E
erik_squires
prof
3,474 posts
 
I generally don’t feel the need for tone controls in my system. I have a nice sounding room, nice accurate speakers, but my CJ amps and pre-amp add a touch of romance.

But I also sometimes use my old Eico HF-81 14W integrated amp. It has basic treble/volume control and I have no problem using them. I used them to dial in the sound I like for that amp. (But once dialed in, I don’t feel any need to bother touching the tone control again).

I personally don’t care to get in to the mind set of trying to tweak my system to every, or most recordings. That to me is too distracting.

That said, the ONE area in which I wouldn’t mind some tweaking control is in adding subwoofers to my system. I haven’t got them set up anything near perfectly, but I love the effect of full range for lots of tracks, but the occasional tracks I prefer without subs. I’d like a pre-set or two that dialed back the sub, or at least the lowest frequencies, at the touch of a button. (And if I implement the DSpeaker Anti-mode unit that I have, I should have such a control).
vtvmtodvm
66 posts
 
prof—I'll try to help. It sounds as if you've got TWO separate subwoofers. Correct? What make/model are these subwoofers? And are these subs self-powered, with their own (independent) internal power amplifiers? If not self-powered, how do feed audio signals to them, and from what source?
wolf_garcia
6,711 posts
 
I use 2 unobtrusive beautiful sounding REL subs (inexpensive bought used) and their volume pots are accessible due to chicken head knobs, and until recently they were my only "tone controls"....and that was fine, and mostly still is. I have a Schiit Loki that is also unobtrusive and seems to have zero impact when bypassed (click it on and off and you can see what that's all about...no sign of it). Other than the fact that, in my case anyway, it makes for longer cables runs to the amp (and is single ended only). I checked very carefully to see if the longer cable runs (a couple of meters instead of previously one) had any negative effect on my preamp-to-amp signal and was happy to notice it doesn't. In any case, those who are anti "DSP electronic nanny" (they remove some of the soul from music, and I should know as I have no soul at all) should order a Loki immediately. Although it stays bypassed most of the time, it's an extremely useful little el-cheapo gem. Look for a balanced version eventually, although that should be somewhat more costly...still...
prof
3,474 posts
 
vtvmtodvm,

Just noticed your reply.

I have two JL Audio E110 subwoofers, and the JL Audio CR-1 outboard crossover, as well as a DSpeaker Anti-node sitting in a box if I want to use it.

I have tube preamp, tube monoblocks, and intend to use the crossover to send signal to the mains and sub.   If I feel the need, I'll use the anti-node on the sub frequencies (I don't care to digitize the entire signal if I can help it).
vtvmtodvm
66 posts
 
prof—I certainly CAN help you with this; I own a pair of JL Audio E110 subs myself, and use a Marchand XM66 active crossover, which is functionally equivalent to JL Audio's CR-1, but lots cheaper (has lower quality internal components). 

However, I now have a dentist appointment to attend, and it involves some major stuff, so I probably won't be in shape to respond further today. I'll get back to you tomorrow for sure.
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