Do you use tone controls (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

I used to turn the Bass knob up quite a bit. When I rearranged my room, I turned it back to tis original position and I like it better this way now. I am curious as to how people feel about the Bass and Treble knobs.

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Holadem

 

[Richard Travale]

A good friend once pointed out to me," You know, Mr. Sony and Mr. Paradigm know a lot more about how it's supposed to sound than you do". I leave mine at flat since that little epiphony. Unless you have legit EQ problems of course, but then an outboard EQ might be the better way to go anyhow.

 

[Jagan Seshadri]

When I was a high schooler I had a cheapo stereo system and a 5-band EQ that I used to make the system sound better. Ten years later, I find that my different (better) audio system needs no EQ/tone control. And having done an EE degree in the meantime, I realize that good tone controls are hard to make, and if your receiver has a source-direct (EQ bypass) switch, by all means bypass the tone controls!!!

My philosophy now is: Keep all settings flat (or better yet, bypassed), and with a decent system you'll hear what the artist intended for you to hear!

-JNS

 

[Clinton McClure]

I leave mine set flat. I also despise EQs and will avoid them whenever possible.

 

[Ron-P]

They are flat and I do not touch'em, just like this girl I used to know.
Peace Out~

 

[Sean Conklin]

I'm a Source Direct man myself.

 

[Chris PC]

Sometimes I turn up the bass a bit, especially if I want more bass and the recording is a little shy on bass. I mostly keep my adjustments to a couple of dB's or so, and mostly only when I have the volume lower. I often listen to music at a lower overall volume, but I like bass, so I turn the bass up a bit when listening at lower volumes. I'm like my own LOUDNESS curve control, since my receiver doesn't have one.

Generally though, I find I listen to music and movies with the tone controls at 0. That is where I do most of my music listening. Too much bass "boost" sounds bad.

 

[Ken Bohn]

I used use an EQ and tone controls although rather mildly with the boost and cuts. That was back when I was piecing together a system with what ever I could find at a price I could afford. The tone control helped me tune the sound to my liking. As years went by and my components improved I eventually got away from controls until finally I don't have anything, not even bass and treble on my pre-amp. Though I can control the sub level.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I leave the tone controls flat and also avoid the soundfields on my Sony 50ES receiver. It's set to AUTO FORMAT DECODE for each source component.

 

[Norm Strong]

I use both the bass and treble controls if the sound requires it. It usually doesn't take more than a couple of db in any direction.

The recording engineers have no idea of the frequency response of your system. If it happens to be perfectly flat, consider yourself lucky. Mine needs a little treble boost and about 1 db of bass cut.

 

[Jon_B]

I keep mine at 0. Sounds good as is.
Jon

 

[Ted Lee]

for video, mine are set to just a touch past twelve-o-clock. when i watch movies i usually turn on the loudness - just cuz i don't have a sub and like the "enhanced" bass.

but for audio i put everything at zero.

 

[Saurav]

I keep the 'Tone Bypass' switch on my amp engaged. It sounds a little better that way, as compared to keep the tone controls engaged but at 0. The amp in question is a NAD C-340 integrated.

 

[John Morris]

Nope... well, except for the lower bass region where I use a parametric EQ to tame some room induced humps.

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Yes I do use both the Tone Controls and the DSP Fields.

My music tastes are eclectic to say the very least. One

moment I could be listening to instrumental (which I usualy

run with a flat slop on treb and bass) and the next moment

I may be listening to speed metal (up the bass and treb)

It all depends on the media your playing. As for the DSP

Fields, I have an Onkyo 787 and Onk's DSP's are very mild

compared to some companies (Yamaha) DSP fields. I usualy

listen to music in All Channel Stereo or Orechestra but I

have recently discovered that when set up correctly the

DSP Field called "Theater Dimensional" adds an effect of

surround using 2 channels (Psycoacoustics) which I get a

kick out of. Again I reiterate that it all depends on the

media at hand. Some media sounds far too flat at 0Db and

some sounds far too bright at anything more than 0Db.

 

[Bill Adlhoch]

This topic begs a question. Why do tone controls always have as much "cut" as "boost"? All i have heard here is that you MIGHT pump up one or the other a bit, but I have yet to hear ANYONE even mentionaing "decreasing" either bass or treble via the tone controls.

Why isnt there a tone control that can BOOST up to +12, but maybe only CUTS down to -4? Why must is always be +/- "X" and be equal on both sides?

 

[Thomas_A]

my yammie has bass boost and tone controls. I have the bass boost set to off (reminds me of a re-named loudness button) and the tone control is by-passed. all set to flat. I finaly realized that with a good system...You dont need to mess with those controls..
peace out
Happy turkey day all

 

[Bernard L]

tone control is reserved for low-mid fi systems. most cheap speakers can't produce any bass without a little 'boost'. some even cheaper speakers are awefully bright.

I've never had to touch any controls with hi-fi systems.

 

[KeithH]

Good topic. I don't use tone controls on my NAD C 350 and C 370 integrated amps. The bass and treble knobs are set at 12 o'clock. Also, I always leave my Sony STR-V444ES A/V receiver set to Auto Format Decode. When I used to use the analog inputs on the 'V444ES for music sources, I used the Analog Direct mode.

 

[Saurav]

but I have yet to hear ANYONE even mentionaing "decreasing" either bass or treble via the tone controls.

I do it in my car stereo. I have bass and midrange at +1, and treble at -2 - that should give you some idea of how harsh I think it sounds This is for CD's, for the radio I bring the treble back to 0.