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Message from the Past: We were never against tone controls

For those of us who started being audiophiles a very long time ago, we have a message for you all:

We were never against tone controls. We were against poor sounding tone controls, and many of them were. From bass / treble nobs to 1/3 octave equalizers, they all were almost universally garbage.

That was decades ago. Now things are in some cases much better, or at least, not nearly as bad sounding as a poor recording.  Stop using guidelines from the 1980's to decide what to do.

You are not obligated to sit through a performance without adjusting the music to suite your tastes. It’s OK to boost the bass, or turn down the treble for your liking. You have all the permission you need.
erik_squires
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
@erik_squires 


Ok, while I totally agree with your premise that it's fine to incorporate tone controls into audiophile listening, I have to categorically disagree with this statement of yours.  Seriously???

If you don't have tone controls, how can you say you have a high end preamp? You don't. You have a mid-fi preamp that is missing features.

erik_squires OP
16,404 posts
 
@three_easy_payments

I'm trolling. It's obvious I'm trolling, and yet, people will allow themselves to be trolled. :)
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,320 posts
 
Quad plowed its own furrow with Tilt controls.  (Nothing to do with pinball, either.)
fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,636 posts
 
Permission?
We don’ need no stinkin’ permission.

It's in the implementation. The future "super" Loki will give the Cello Palette a run for the money.
erik_squires OP
16,404 posts
 
Not the only brand, twoleftears .

Several did this.  The M&K SB speakers for instance had an impressive amount of built in tone controls, executed by fairly high number of parts in the crossover.  Ative speakers often have one of the best options too, to compensate for room placement.
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