Preamps ... no bass or treble control?

If you want less hassle in the end go with Tone controls... you could swap preamps and cables for the next 15 years and never get a perfect match, if you need more or less of something make it easy for yourself and have at least bass and treble adjustments. In turn you will see that its not your speakers or amp that you need to keep changing out, they will perform pretty well if you give them a little kick. I found the most important things to spend money on in the end was Source, Speakers, Preamp, And Room(acoustics) Then Worry about the amp, which are nowhere near as problematic to get a good one as the other stuff, and finaly worry about cables, power conditioning, Spikes etc... I just bought a Mcintosh Preamp with the built in 5 Band EQ which has adjustable Loudness and a 30hz control and never heard my system go to the subsonic levels with ease like this, truly got me to the potential of the system. So do yourself a favor and forget about Knocking that 1 db of treble off with a 500.00 pair of cables, or thinking that 1000.00 in bass traps will give you the extra boost you need for deep bass and get it over with by putting in something you can control at your fingertips, and not have to try and beat the odds and change the physics of your entire system several times.

I'm aware that if you invest enough money into your gear, the sound quality reaches such a degree that tone controls are an unnecessary circuit that would ultimately degrade the signal, I've been there. It is also true that preamps with tone controls are generally midfi or less but there are a few quality preamps out there that have incorporated tone controls with little effect on the overall sound quality. I have found even using the highest quality preamps (ARC Reference ll MK ll) and then inserting the B&K PT3 with tone adjustment, at times raised my musical enjoyment to a higher degree with some music. But we live in a free country, if you want to use them, no one will come to your home and arrest you! I don't have audiophiles sitting in my living room taking notes when I play my music, so ultimately I have to please myself regardless of what preamp I'm using. You can do whatever turns you on.

If  we accept Dr. Greenman's assertion that tone controls are represented by a transfer function, then then any mechanism altering tone is represents that transfer function, whether cable or amplifier. Note also that the room represents an entirely different, and far more complex transfer function. This is why equalization cannot fix acoustics - equalization can only affect the input of the system into the room. Acoustics is the output of the room into the ear. The transfer functions are separate. Changing a value in the frequency domain has no impact on the reverberant domain. The acoustic transfer function of the room remains constant unless physically changed by absobtion, reflection, or room geometry.

 

 

 

Holy necro-thread, Batman!