Preamps ... no bass or treble control?

We now use cables to affect the sound instead of bass and treble controls, as they apparently are "more precise than tone controls, and don't affect the sonic signature" as some have commented here. Go figure.
If 7671 is right in saying that "The sound is tweaked by room acoustics, speaker placement,cabling..." then how could it be as Asonciyouth indicates that "true fidelity is in essence staying true to the original music, thus adjusting certain frequency levels is the opposite of what pure hifi is going for". Is there a certain place in a certain room using certain cables etc., ect. that "true fidelity" apears.
It's nonsense - see what Tomryan says - much closer to reality.
MC, Accuphase and some other high end pre's have tone controls. Imagine - being able to affect the sound via a high quality potentiometer without have to deal with cables - almost boggles the mind eh? Otherwise, according to advise here, you'll be moving your speakers, changing your cables etc. everytime you put another disc in.

Search for a thread on loudness controls from about 3 months ago if you want another howl on this subject.

Onhwy61,

Just because your tone control is digital doesn't mean that
it is without deleterious artifacts. The tone control is
characterized by a "transfer function" - the ratio of the
Laplace transform of the output over the Laplace transform
of the input.

For a given transfer function; you can implement it either
in analog or digital. Either way - the deleterious effect
will be exactly the SAME!! The deleterious effect is a
property of the transfer function, and not whether the
implementation is analog or digital.

Dr. Gregory Greenman
Physicist

"The proof of a pudding is in the eating." - George Harrison

As a music lover I would not reject anything for any other reason than it reduces the music coming from the speakers. As an somewhat neurotic audiophile I'd be very careful before introducing another transfer of signal(s) in my system. This includes complex amp designs and multiple driver speakers.

However, I've been able to blend a REL subwoofer into the system which has only increased the musical enjoyment. Same thing for the Tonian supertweeters I bought 6-7 weeks ago. So now I'm running a 4 way system which sounds way more musical than the 2 way stand mounts alone.

I also had a Placette passive for 2-3 years which created better music than the conrad-johnson it replaced. However, about a year ago a Joule Electra LA150 made better music than the Placette so I bought it and sold the passive.

I have no tone controls in the system but intend to someday soon audition one of the digital or analog units out there like PARC.

My preamp: no tone controls, no balance control. I have never needed them. Custom made with no controls, on purpose.

I like tone controls since my room isn't optimal and many recordings are crap. I believe these people who say they don't want controls because it mucks up the signal path are kidding themselves - their room screws it up way more than that but I guess they don't know or care. I only trust a flat in-room frequency response for hearing "true" and "pure" sound the way the recording was meant to be. If you want tone controls, get them - just look for preamps with them like McIntosh. Arthur