Tone controls

[Diamond Joe]

I use the bass control on my Audiolab 8000A occasionally, thanks to modern house construction I have to reduce the amount of bass so I don't annoy my nearest neighbour (he's bigger than me!!) I did try plugging the ports but the overall sound was a bit, well, odd, for want of a better word.

 

[TrevC]

I got a roksan kandy no tone controls, its paired with the kef r700, the cable are qed anniversary silver, the sound is a bit bright must be the cables, the source is a kandy cd player, used to have a technics z125 amp that had tone controls never used them left them on the half way stage, some said that adding graphic equalizers a no no as it dilutes the purity of the sound.

Ignore them, they are talking nonsense. Good eq is the key to good sound.

 

[TrevC]

I'd guess it depends on how much your boosting the bass by, are your speakers really flapping? I've the same amp as you and have never had to turn it to 12 oclock but my speaks are 3db more sensitive than yours.

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I turn the bass up mostly for low listening, it's not the amp it's the speakers. That's exactly it, they flap away and push plenty of air but I don't hear it! So say at 10 o'clock adding a little bass gives me the sound I want and am use to.

How about the loudness button, I put that on sometimes, god forbid!

Actually a proper loudness control, ie one that reduces it's effect as the volume is raised, is probably better and safer then regular tone controls.

Personally I think tone controls, particularly on budget amplifiers, are lethal devices, for bass units at least.

People do not seem to realise that the bass control is in effect a second volume control. Amplifiers have limited power (volume) and you can only use this power once, as far as using your amplifier's power is concerned turning up the bass control is the same as turning up the volume.

Turning up both is going to cause damage.

I think you're being over dramatic. Moderate tone control use is perfectly acceptable and not dangerous at all. Indeed, if you have small stand mounters and no sub an approprite dollop of bass boost can be very pleasing indeed.

 

[dansettemajor]

I think the whole 'no tone controls purist' debate is a load of twaddle. Back in the 60's it was considered acceptable for loudspeaker reviewers to use small amounts of bass boost when testing bookshelf speakers in order to achieve more realistic results from them.
Then there is the fact that most adults over the age of 60 will experience a gradual high frequency hearing loss , thus the availability of a treble control can be very useful for subtly enhancing detail where this has diminished somewhat.
My amplifier doesn't have tone controls, but I occasionally use a Musical a Fidelity X Tone add on tone control when I need slightly more' bite'or depth to the sound.( I am over 60)
I wouldn't be put off buying an amplifier which doesn't have tone controls, but neither would I reject one which does.. I would certainly use them (sparingly) if they were there.

 

[cse]

Food is seasoned whilst cooking , not added to after.

Absolutely right. I also have a Caspian Mk1 model. It also has no tone controls and I'm not sure that I have ever really missed them.

 

[Richard Allen]

Ignore them, they are talking nonsense. Good eq is the key to good sound.

And how you achieve it is entirely up to the user.

 

[Electro]

I have never ever felt the need for tone controls in any system that I have owned , they are such a blunt instrument and can do more harm than good imo .
I suppose they can be useful in some extreme cases or in rooms with very bad acoustics were there is no other alternative .

 

[Macspur]

I've had many amps without, but now after having the Accuphase, I don't think I'd be without them... to be fair, I don't twiddle with them much.

Mac

www.macsmusic.blogbubble.net

 

[davedotco]

We are talking about some very different things here.

The gentle use of tone controls as described in several recent posts is not an issue, sure they are as described 'pretty blunt instruments' but they can be helpful.

On the other hand as a dealer I used to see a fair number of systems that have been overdriven and destroyed by injudicious use of bass and volume controls and the problem seems to be common even today. The usual explanation, "it's only a 50 watt amplifier and the speakers are 100 watt" was heard time and time again and apparently still is.

A lot of users simply don't want to know about the 'the technicalities' (we hear it on here all the time) and blame everything on the dealer or the equipment which is why we mostly, as dealers, avoided this sector of the market as far as we could.

A couple of arguments with customers over warantees soon set us right.

 

[dayglowred7]

Overdriving speakers is one of the main problems of damaged speakers , thats why buying a higher rated amplier is able to deliver cleaner power to the speakers , which helps to avoid clipping, and therefore speaker damage .

Want more bass why not buy floorstanders instead of bookshelf speakers or add a sub, if room limitation is a problem.

I myself have a subwoofer so it frees the mid and treble to do there job more effectively.