Who uses the tone controls on their amp?

[Anonymous]

[quote user="professorhat"]I wouldn't use them even if I had them on my amp as I feel I shouldn't have to use them. In my opinion, it's the same as going to a decent restaurant and not being provided salt or pepper. If the chef has cooked it properly, I won't need them...[/quote]
I repeat my original analogy; do you leave all your TV picture adjustments at zero, or do you trim the brightness/contrast/whatever to suit your ambient light conditions and personal taste? I'd put money on the fact that you do/have. Why should HiFi be different? If all CDs were recorded to an international standard then you may have a point, but as they're not you're never going to achieve the most pleasing sound (to you) across all CDs you own with one set of hifi components (purely my opinion..)

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="professorhat"]I wouldn't use them even if I had them on my amp as I feel I shouldn't have to use them. In my opinion, it's the same as going to a decent restaurant and not being provided salt or pepper. If the chef has cooked it properly, I won't need them...[/quote]

Im sorry mate but thats the worst analogy ever, infact ist bordering on not actually being an analogy....just a ridiculous self certifying for instance.

 

[fatboyslimfast]

I'd agree that even with the fact that I leave mine alone, it may be that whilst the hifi is perfectly balanced for prof's palate (sorry!) the room that they go into may have unwanted characteristics, such as a lot of hard surfaces which can give the impression of hard treble (in which case the tone controls can help) or a well damped room (lots of soft furnishings and carpets) which can soak up the treble.

As an aside, my room is nearer the latter, which is probably why my RS6s don't sound as bright as some people have experienced them to be, and therefore why I can leave my tone controls alone...

 

[professorhat]

[quote user="marcymarc555"]Im sorry mate but thats the worst analogy ever, infact ist bordering on not actually being an analogy....just a ridiculous self certifying for instance.
[/quote]
Fair enough, each to their own. As I said, just my opinion.

 

[Anonymous]

What's a tone control? Do you mean those old knobs that say bass and treble on? What good are they? The only way you can change something is by filtering it or adding distortion. What good is that?

 

[Anonymous]

I repeat, cables are tone controls. So all those who poo-poo the use of tone controls on an amp, yet would also poo-poo using freebie interconnects...are somewhat contradicting themselves. True, in an ideal world, we would not need to twiddle with the bass and treble but many cds are badly produced and/or mastered, many listening rooms are far from ideal when it comes to hifi and let's not forget the kit itself. Not all of us own fantastic full-range speakers and have the best source and amplifier that money can buy. All of these factors suggest that the use of tone controls is far from ridiculous. It's hifi snobbery, pure and simple. Oh and whilst we're at it, the old loudness control was very useful too when listening at very low volumes, late at night! Nowadays, due to hifi snobbery, to replicate this feature we all have to buy super-sensitive speakers with massive woofers and couple them with an extremely powerful amp just to be able to have decent bass at very low volumes.

 

[Anonymous]

Er no they are not. Cables might effect the sound of a signal that passes through them but thats not the same as a control which supposed to increase or reduce frequencies. Next you'll be having us resort to graphic equalisers!

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Rev"]Er no they are not. Cables might effect the sound of a signal that passes through them but thats not the same as a control which supposed to increase or reduce frequencies. Next you'll be having us resort to graphic equalisers![/quote]

They're changing the sound, therefore they're some kind of tone control! If one cable makes your hifi sound different to another, then it is changing the sound. Therefore it is messing with the signal, exactly what you tone control snobs object to.

 

[professorhat]

[quote user="Wild Willy"]exactly what you tone control snobs object to.[/quote]

Hardly snobbery! Someone asked if I would use them and I said no. If you want to, that's fine with me mate.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="professorhat"][quote user="Wild Willy"]exactly what you tone control snobs object to.[/quote]

Hardly snobbery! Someone asked if I would use them and I said no. If you want to, that's fine with me mate.
[/quote]

Some people dismiss tone controls like they're the work of the devil whilst others accept they can help at times. My amp doesn't even have them but I'm still defending their use! Doh.

 

[Anonymous]

My ol' JVC A-X400 had a 7 band eq per channel! Woohooo! Nah, I usually leave it alone, unless I'm playing radio from my pc when I add just a touch of bass. I don't think it's hi-fi snobbery though, it's just a strong matter of opinion that is usually right...infact, my JVC A-X5 had tone controls which were truly awful, only because at the time, most audiophiles bought 14 band EQs.

Infact, I like having a nice EQ and putting the tape loop through it and not back...lots of addictive flashy lights!

 

[survivor]

I use the bass tone control a fair bit on my PIONEER A-a6-J. This is because I feel my amp is lacking a bit in the bass department. I knew this before buying but wasnt overly concerned as I`m not a big on bass type person but of course its nice to have a little now and then.

Probably didnt help that I partnered this with B&W 685`s with Silver Anniversay XT speaker cable. Still, a very nice sound nonetheless!

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Rev"]What's a tone control? Do you mean those old knobs that say bass and treble on? What good are they? ...........[/quote]

The good, is that they allow you to trim the sound to make it more pleasing to the listener. Why do you imply this is a bad thing?

 

[Anonymous]

I've personally not used the tone controls on my amp (PM6002) as I'm happy with the overall sound. Having said that, I notice absolutely zero difference in sound regardless of whether the defeat button is on or off, so there'd be no disadvantage to using them as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Anonymous]

Current main system amp has none but even with its multi button predessor and my other systems that do have tone knobs I've never used them... and that's in 20yrs plus. I do tweak bass/treble in the car though.

David

 

[Anonymous]

I don't use tone controls. I don't have it.

 

[Anonymous]

I`m happy with the sound of my Arcam Alpha 9 but do occasionally use the tone`s as I listen to a lot ofstuff like the Beatles where you need to use them to make it sound better because the recordings aren`t the best,they`re old.Sometimes you need them,doesn`t mean your amp`s cr*p.Or try listening to What`s the story...by Oasis with no tone`s,awful,may sound ok on a cheap mini system but on proper hi-fi it`s awful,if using them makes it sound better to me,why not?