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
Generally anything between the source and the amplifier will suck the life out of the music.
But if you have a thirst for a certain frequency( usually bass?), then have at it :-).
Generally anything between the source and the amplifier will suck the life out of the music.


I must differ.  There's no life sucking here. Even with less decent tone controls, they usually give more than they take. Like @4425 stated, above, the Luxman tone controls are superb. I don't hear any of the previous tone control issues, so I have to believe Luxman doesn't have a lock here, but that other makers can also do good things with tone controls. 
Generally anything between the source and the amplifier will suck the life out of the music.
Because the room acoustic come after the amplifier do you think that it will not interfer ?

And the electrical noise floor of the house is where? before the source or between the source and the amplifier or after the amplifier?

And the mechanical interference where are they? anywhere it seems...

And all this can suck the life out....

Then wait a minute, if the filter controls on My Sansui interfer to improve the perceived sound can it be good perhaps for me ears? It seems to me that it did not suck the life at all...😊

I think many  people really think that audio experience is reducible to "some kind" of pure virginal  electronic design created without sins ....Even at his optimal working, no electronic design can give a good audio experience by itself only...None....It need to be specifically embed....

Name it tone controls, filters controls, acoustical controls devices, mechanical vibrations or resonance controls, or electrical noise floor controls, we need many things to give life anew to the audio system then perhaps something between the source and the amplifier can be good....

Happy New year....