I too feel tone controls have been given a bad rap. Sure, they might degrade transparency somewhat, but if the overall effect is net positive for your listening needs, room conditions, etc...well, a net positive is a net positive!
Tone controls used carefully and without excess can avoid much of the problem that their overuse causes. I find sometimes a just a little tip toward 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock in the bass and/or treble is all that is needed to bring a recording into balance. You seldom should have to go much further than that.
Tone control use is usually less negative in effect for the bass, which most rooms can use a little fine tuning on anyway. It may also save you the trouble of spending large amounts of resources on room treatments, which while a worthwhile goal, may be impractical, expensive, unaesthically pleasing, etc..
Go for it, but do try to make some no or low cost changes that might work, including experimentation with speaker placement and toe-in.
Jeff Delman
www.value-audio.com
Tone controls used carefully and without excess can avoid much of the problem that their overuse causes. I find sometimes a just a little tip toward 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock in the bass and/or treble is all that is needed to bring a recording into balance. You seldom should have to go much further than that.
Tone control use is usually less negative in effect for the bass, which most rooms can use a little fine tuning on anyway. It may also save you the trouble of spending large amounts of resources on room treatments, which while a worthwhile goal, may be impractical, expensive, unaesthically pleasing, etc..
Go for it, but do try to make some no or low cost changes that might work, including experimentation with speaker placement and toe-in.
Jeff Delman
www.value-audio.com