I like my system flat, no tone controls, no eq..........what is your preference, and why.


A poster on another thread here has encouraged me to post this. Been an audio professional and a hobbyist for 50 tears. I had my time with eq, tone controls ( even reverb and time delay units ). I am currently at the point where I need nothing to alter the recordings I listen to, nor to compensate for room aberrations. I have spent lots of money on equipment , had equipment on loan, of all types ( pretty much a bit of everything, for the most part ) and I have tweaked, and tweaked, and tweaked. I have recently tooled down to a much simpler and less expensive system, and I find I am the happiest I have ever been. Might be my amp, my passive unit, my speakers...…….yes, all of that. Yes, all of that is important, but it is the system synergy that has made me realize that changing anything with an eq or tone controls took me further from that synergy, that balance. I accept, and enjoy my recordings for what they are. Some better than others ( sq ). But, I am enjoying the brilliance of all the studio work put into them,  exactly as they were intended to be listened to. This is me. I do not believe in right or wrong, better or worse, newer vs older, yada yada yada. I have believed, and have stated, particularly in this hobby, to each his own. I hear fuse differences, power cable differences, etc. Some believe I was born a bat. I am happy of my gift, not just hearing well, but through the years, teaching myself " what it is I like ", which is the key for most of us. I am not sure where this thread will go, but I put it out there, and hope folks will drop in, even though much of it might have been stated before in other threads. Thank you A'gon family, be well, and Enjoy ! MrD.
mrdecibel
i like my system 3-d, not flat with all possible and necessary features to play muzik!

Let's kindly, for the sake of this particular thread, hold to the definition of "flat" as the OP intended. We are not speaking of flat frequency response, but a straightforward, less processed system, without digital EQ, etc.

As with so many things in audio, there will not be consensus, but it is very instructive to experience both forms "flat" (no EQ) and the opposite.

So much depends upon the system, the speakers, etc. it's very difficult to make a final determination of what is superior. I'm sure all of us have heard examples of both exquisitely done.  )

@czarivey I don't think they mean the dimension of the soundstage when they say "flat".

@mrdecibel I always feel like I need to tell people that my system is 'inherited' because  it would probably seem weird (to people who didn't know) that someone with such a nice system (it seems nice to me) is so ignorant about hi-fi otherwise. It is also to indicate that even though my system is decent, my experience level isn't. 

As far as being here for a short time, yes, very new at this but when I dive into something I usually dive deep. Love learning about this stuff.
I have 4 systems and all of them are "flat" with no tone controls.  That doesn't mean that I don't try to change the sound, but it's always by making changes to the system - different speakers, cartridges, amps, sources, etc.

Having said that, I belong to a music meetup and we meet at a hifi shop and play music on one of their demo systems, which for the last few months has included the Anthem STR integrated with Anthem Room Correction. 

The music sounds pleasing with ARC engaged, but at the same time there is an "artificial" quality to it that I can't ignore.  I really enjoy listening to that system both with and without ARC engaged.  I haven't spent enough time listening to it in both modes to be able to say that I would not use ARC. 

That technology seems to have made good progress.  ARC is much more natural sounding than Audyssey in my Marantz and Onkyo AVPs.
I've been playing systems sans any tone controls since the late 1970s. I don't miss them nor do I miss messing with tone controls to get the tonal balance right.

i worked on my room a lot to get rid of reflective surfaces and that really helped. Record shelves with lots of LPs are good diffusers!