Do you use the tone control? (1 Viewer)

[Jason Bell]

I dont use tone controls because the system I got now sounds like I want but my last system I had to jack the treble way up to get any detail. My Denon 1802 has a "Tone Defeat" button and the manual says using this will improve the sound. I think its because it is one less calculation that the receiver has to do to the sound on the way to your speakers. I would just put your settings to whatever sounds best to you. Good Luck.

 

[Walt N]

My last speakers were pretty bright so I'd turn the treble down -2/-4dB pretty regularly when playing loud music that was recorded too brightly. If you think about it, this is really no different than using the Cinema Re-EQ (or Cinema EQ for Denon users) for movies as this feature is nothing more than a tone control.
Much high end equipment doesn't include tone controls because of the mistaken, yet prevalent, belief that even when set flat they adversely affects phase. If my tone controls are set flat and I toggle between regular "stereo" and "direct (or bypass)" I can't hear any difference whatsoever. Try a blind test on this yourself, it's an easy one to perform with an assistant as it requires no connection changes or recalibration.
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"Tone-controls cause an audible deterioration even when set to the flat position?"
"This is usually blamed on "phase-shift". At the time of writing, tone controls on a preamp badly damage its chances of street (or rather sitting-room) credibility, for no good reason. Tone-controls set to 'flat' cannot possibly contribute any extra phase-shift and must be inaudible. My view is that they are absolutely indispensable for correcting room acoustics, loudspeaker shortcomings, or tonal balance of the source material, and that a lot of people are suffering sub-optimal sound as a result of this fashion. It is now commonplace for audio critics to suggest that frequency-response inadequacies should be corrected by changing loudspeakers. This is an extraordinarily expensive way of avoiding tone-controls."
Douglas Self
Link Removed
(see "Pseudo-Science In Audio")

 

[RobertSchaez]

I would try listening to music with the tone controls flat or bypassed for a week or more, let your ears get accustomed to it. THEN try bumping it up and see if you like it better. You may find it sounds too harsh now that you are used to a flatter response. Or, you may welcome the return of detail. For all these people to say that tone controls or EQs are for people with a tin ear is just being elitist. If music was meant to be heard "as the artist intended", why the hell are there SO many differences is speaker sounds? When choosing a speaker, how would one know which brand and model plays music the closest to what "it is supposed to" sound like? Isn't making a choice of speaker taking an awful chance that the sound coming out of it might not be exactly what the artist had in mind? No, we buy a speaker that sounds the best to us. Ooh, ooh, what about the interconnect/speaker wire snob that claim "This super-snorkle, ultra-pure palladium core wire terminated with pure metallic sodium really helped my bass response and made the highs sing"? Couldn't that idiot just saved a few hundred bucks and hit the loudness button? Jeeze! I say if people are willing to accept this premise, why not tune your gear to sound the best for your ears. Let 'er rip!
R