A blast of fresh air regarding tone controls.

[shooter]

shooter69:I've owned amps over the years that have tone controls and not.
We can all benefit from tone controls for the obvious reasons and why not, the recording industry use hundreds of tone controls or EQ in a studio to get the sound spot on so why not in our home?
I would prefer to see them on a speaker (as both are passive) rather than on an amp.
If a active crossover is needed for bass and/or treble boost then it would have to go on the amp but for tonal changes in room acoustics or recordings then a passive would be fine.

EDIT. Active crossover/ active tone control.

 

[ID.]

Luckily I vary the tone controls through my remote, but I don't really do it or feel the need to do it very much. On the other hand, I think I'm developing some kind of OCD switching between the different DAC filters...but maybe that's another thread entirely.

 

[respe]

some tone control systems work very well, older quad, Luxman, accuphase, early sansui, and some are a blunt instrument, Most NAD, later Sansui. etc.

When I had a amp system with tone controls that worked, I generally played a few discs that were on balance, well recorded, set the system to the room using them, and left it at that. Trying to use tone controls to modify the sound from poor recordings would turn any listening session into a St Vitus dance routine, and not be really all that practical.

It has been shown by the better companies, that the system well implemented works very well indeed, and probably at a lessor cost than messing around with cable. It will not compensate for poorly placed speakers however. (all IMHO)

 

[manicm]

the record spot:plastic penguin:

At long last someone recognises the real world benefit of tone controls. I get pretty fed up of hearing manufactuers bleating on about how much more even an amp sounds without the controls. In a utopian world maybe, but in the average two up two down, no way!

Well done, Chebby for finding the article.

Very true PP, I started to get into hifi in the 80s when it was full of new black featureless boxes that had a selector knob and a knob and a power switch. Some years later, about 2009 (!), when I looked into buying a vintage, or pre-80s amp, I was amazed to see that the Technics SU-V6 amp came with a Tone Defeat switch, which first appeared on the market in the early 80s. Likewise, later when I bought my current amp, it too has a Tone Defeat switch amongst all the other options it has. It's also the best amp I've ever heard (and there've been a few over the years now!). I'm not saying that one necessarily follows the other, but I'm less convinced by any take that says an amplifier without them is fundamentally better than one with.

That's exactly my point!!!! We had a lower model Technics SU-V5 which was great. It got stolen and we replaced it with the SU-V4X which was brilliant and better than any Pioneer A400 or such like - and that's my point - I was listening to it with tone controls on 'Defeat'.

 

[SteveR750]

OT I know but there is nothing quite like solid 80s Japanese electronics for looks, not like the contrived arty appearance that todays designers strive for; I mean come on Roksan; the previous Kandy looked stupid, the K2 better but hardly elegant. As for Cyrus or Naim lets not go there shall we.....

 

[idc]

I bypassed the tone controls on my Denon PMA????, but I used the Playtrim all the time on my Yamaha KX390 cassette deck. Playtrim was to cassettes what tone controls are to amps. So it depends on the application. But debates about tone control settings are more believable in terms of effect on sound than most other stuff we go on about.

PS - how do you post a picture of your itunes equaliser settings?

 

[chebby]

idc:PS - how do you post a picture of your itunes equaliser settings?

Take a screen print of it and do a 'save as' (to change to jpg) then crop/resize to 400 pixels and pop it in flickr and post here as normal.

 

[SteveR750]

idc:
But debates about tone control settings are more believable in terms of effect on sound than most other stuff we go on about.

+1 Oh yes!

 

[the record spot]

The Sansui AU-717 - bass, tone, filters of various kinds, tone defeat, muting....functionally sound, internal build to die for...happy as Larry me! Looks pretty damn smart too I think!

 

[SteveR750]

When I was around 11-12 yrs old and got intersted in hi fi (how sad is that!) I recall that Sansui amps were a constant recommendation, back in the days of the original 3020 and the Linn Isobariks to naim but two (sorry). I love the looks of this Japanese stuff from this era, it looks like the business IMO.

 

[Anonymous]

Vinny7:

Interesting article.

Are there respectable companies out there that can optimise your setup for you?

Yes, there are but they cost an arm and a leg and, as Chebby says, tone controls are cheaper. I would add that parametric controls would probably be better than conventional treble and bass.