I’ve had older multi-band equalizers. All degraded the SQ of high-mid to high end systems. The hope is that the Loki will essentially be transparent (although it does add either one or 2 ICs into the signal circuit). At $150, and easily bypassed, it’s worth a try for someone who has the funds. Also the simplicity of having only 4 bands seems like an advantage.
Tone controls -- assuming you're ok with them, when would you try them?
So, I'm learning and experimenting w/ speaker/sub placement. I've had some success. Presently using my old Adcom GTP-400 preamp (treble, bass, and loudness/contour controls). It's likely my next amps won't have tone controls (nor balance).
Beyond compensating for old/bad recordings, I realize there is, nevertheless, a standing debate whether tone controls are worth the (likely) sound degradation. Imagine that debate was settled and tone controls were deemed worthwhile, overall. IF you'll stipulate to all that, my question is this:
QUESTION: If the sound is not right in your room, and you've placed speakers as best you can, what do you try next? At what point do you go for tone controls?
Perhaps some just go for tone controls from the get-go…happy to hear from you all, too.
FWIW, I saw this nice list from @erik_squires on this topic:
Beyond compensating for old/bad recordings, I realize there is, nevertheless, a standing debate whether tone controls are worth the (likely) sound degradation. Imagine that debate was settled and tone controls were deemed worthwhile, overall. IF you'll stipulate to all that, my question is this:
QUESTION: If the sound is not right in your room, and you've placed speakers as best you can, what do you try next? At what point do you go for tone controls?
Perhaps some just go for tone controls from the get-go…happy to hear from you all, too.
FWIW, I saw this nice list from @erik_squires on this topic:
erik_squires8,293 posts
08-19-2017 11:06am
Tone controls help us compensate for differences in recording trends across decades of recordings.
Tone controls help us adjust our sound quality to different listening situations and volumes.
Tone controls help us adjust for speaker placement.
Tone controls are much cheaper and more efficient way of doing this than most other solutions.
A good tone control is a lot easier to implement than a good equalizer. Fewer bands so more affordable to use high quality parts.
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@ decooney What preamp with tone controls did your friend get? "A good friend and total tube nut with several custom built boutique tube preamps recently picked up a nice tube preamp with quality tone controls. He absolutely loves it. He uses it for (-1) tuning of high frequencies (mainly for streamed content) when listening to older/bad recordings of tracks he enjoys listening to. Says it expanded his listening library. "can listen to anything now". Now it's his favorite preamp in his tube preamp collection." |
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@cscrutinizer As I recall Holger’s Erhard Audio "Aretha" 6SL7 based preamp with tone controls. Off the top of my head don’t remember if it has the tone defeat or loudness switch options or not, or if those were available when he ordered it a few years ago I think it was. He’s swapped out the coupling caps to try a few others to test, and the stock Mundorfs were fine too he indicated http://www.erhard-audio.com/Aretha.html |
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