Do you use tone controls (1 Viewer)

[Brett DiMichele]

Bernanrd L,
I am not trying to encite a riot so please don't get too
awful peeved at this reply.
You say "tone control is reserved for low-mid fi systems"
I say "Do your speakers cost a minimum of 10K a pair? And
does your Pre/Pro or whetver you use, cost upwards of 20K?"
If you awnser no, You are a Mid-Fi'r just like the rest of
us..
The point is that no matter what gear you use, It depends
on the MEDIA you play. Some recordings are patheticly flat
sounding unless you have a pair of overly bright speakers
in which case a bright recording becomes a harsh recording.
There are many many recordings where I can run flat on both
trebbel and bass, and then there are some that becon to be
tweaked. If that makes me a Low Fi'r then label me what you
must.. But atleast I know the music sounds the best to me
when I tweak it.
Saurav,
Car audio... I run my Trebbel at +5 and my Bass at -1
I need better speakers up front (thus the reason I need to
boost the highs) and the subs are so strong that they bekon
to be cut back.. On some songs as much as -4 ! When I first
installed the system I thought it was cool to run at +4 and
that was fun untill the mirror fell off the windsheild many
times. Then I realized cutting it back worked better for
keeping parts on the car

 

[Joe Casey]

In my car bass is lowered and treble is boosted. They are bypassed in my HT system. In my audio system they don't even exist.

 

[Jack Keck]

I never use them, but my son used to. He likes heavy metal. He'd turn the bass all the way up and the treble all the way down. And leave them that way. No matter how much I hollered. He's had a year of karate lessons, so all I can do is yell.
He quit doing this after I got home from cardiac bypass surgery and told him that I could not deal with all that bass. It actually did cause physical discomfort at that time. I have since bought a subwoofer.
I'm feeling much better now.

 

[Bernard L]

brett.

I guess my post wasn't too specific.

I was just mentioning that speakers of poor quality would need tone adjustments... but once you get passed the $1000 mark, from my experience, any tone adjustments seems to taint (or color) the sound for the worse. and the tone adjustments I'm talking about are the ones that come with your receiver (typically treble, bass, maybe mid).

equalizers on the other hand do a better job simply because they are more accurate with exactly which tone you want to adjust.

 

[EdS]

I guess I'm in the minority for this thread, but I do use the tone controls on my Yam 2095 receiver. I've has various sets of speakers hooked up over the last couple of years and at times I've had the bass set anywhere from -2 to +1, and the treble either centered or at +1.

I don't really see the big deal about using them in moderation. Depending on your room size, furnishings, etc, a neutral set of speakers could sound either overly bright or warm. Using tone controls can help compensate for the effects of a room. Similarly, different speakers have different sounds, I see nothing wrong with moderate changes to tone controls if someone finds their speakers too bright, not enough bass, etc. Just because your equipment measures flat in a lab is no guarantee for how it will sound in your room.

 

[Ted Lee]

eds -
there's no right or wrong answer here. if it sounds good to you then that's all that matters.

 

[MartyK]

source direct for me

 

[Evan S]

Here's an interesting sidebar. If you are used to using the tone controls a certain way (or the bass boost or loudness setting activated), then do a full scale upgrade to your system (speakers, Amp, source), knowing the engineers/artists intended the music to be played with a flat response curve, if you deactivate the tone controls do you think you can prefer the "modified" settings you were previously using?
I don't know if my speakers haven't fully broken in yet or what seems to be the problem, but after deactivating the tone controls on my new Paradigm Ref 40's, I'm finding the sound to be a little thin. I can't pinpoint the problem. I have about 40 or more hours on them, highs are starting to recess, but the bottom end isn't providing the balance that I'm used to. Seems a little shy down low, but when activating the bass boost it returns in full force. Do my ears need to be retrained to appreciate this more refined, simpler, natural sound? Does this make any sence?:frowning:

 

[Tommy T.]

Use them a lot especially w/older Music CD's & of course the radio. Usually turn the bass up & the treble down to remove background hiss. Also, all speakers are not 100% accurate & adjusting the tone controls corrects them slightly.

 

[Ryan Schnacke]

Okay so the majority of us run the bass/treble controls flat or bypassed. But how many of us set our subwoofers +2dB or more above reference when our speakers are calibrated to exactly reference? Especially if you've set your main speakers to SMALL then isn't this basically the equivalent of boosting the bass with the treble controls? Are some of us fooling ourselves about running "flat"?

-Ryan

Tone controls = 0, sub = +5dB corrected.

 

[MichaelG]

No tone controls here, and I do keep my sub set to the appropriate calibrated level.

 

[Philip Hamm]

The problem that we run into is that every recording is different. Ever recording studio mixing room is intended to have flat response, but audiophiles can tell you how difficult that is to achieve. If the album was mixed in a room that ate highs, it will beg for a tone increase, etc. etc. etc. etc.

The goal of speaker manufacturers is also flat response. Though we all know how rooms can destroy that goal, it's nonetheless what the speakers were designed to do.

There's no way to know the history of every mixing room, and since the ideal is flat, I run my speakers flat and am happy with that. I bypass the tone controls and run my sub at reference or close thereto.

Nothing wrong with using them, it's just that I find that it's too much to worry about. I just put the music on, leave everything flat and don't worry about it. EVERYWHERE. In my car, in my office, in my living room, home theater room, and my bedroom tone controls are untouched and defeated where it's possible to do so.

 

[Mike Kao]

I find FM radio to sound quite dull so I turn up the treble setting on my Harman Kardon AVR510 up quite a bit. Otherwise I usually keep it flat. It all depends on the source if you ask me. BTW, does anyone know if the harman kardons feature tone bypass?

 

[James Zos]

Am I the only one who turns my treble DOWN slightly (-2)?

I'm using Klipsch RB-5s with a Denon 3802, and on some DVD's I've noticed a little s-sss-sibilance with dialogue. Turning the treble down slightly seems to even it out a little.

 

[Evan S]

Mike, I have a tone defeat on my 20 year old H/K 680I, but my much newer AVR-35 does not have a tone defeat mechanism that I can tell. Still, it does have the regular tone controls (Bass, Treble) that you can just set to flat (12:00) for the same effect.

 

[John Royster]

I'm using Klipsch RB-5s with a Denon 3802, and on some DVD's I've noticed a little s-sss-sibilance with dialogue. Turning the treble down slightly seems to even it out a little.

That's the sound of Klipsh speakers there. Every speaker has a unique "sound". Could also be the room.

all tone controls are defeated or 0 on my audio systems.

 

[Arthur S]

There is nothing wrong with using tone controls if it sounds better to you. The "holy grail" of flat tone controls is based on wishful thinking. CDs are mixed differently according to the taste of the artist and producer. Expecting them all to sound good with tone controls set flat is the wishful thinking.

It also fails to take into consideration the fact that the listening room has a huge effect on the response. Room induced response variations are usually many times the size of the response variations of a speaker in an anechoic chamber.

Most speakers will exhibit large (minus 10 db) valleys in the 200-800 Hz range because of "floor bounce" i.e., cancellations from reflections off the floor.

Minimizing the signal path is a fine goal, but in the real world the sacrifices of using source direct are

not worth it.

Over the next few years we will be seeing components with full range, multi channel room equalization. The Pioneer 49TX is one of the first to have this built in.

With everything done in the digital domain sound quality will be first rate. If you really want to see something special, check out the TACT 10 channel room correction system.

Last but not least, is the myth that a system that measures flat from 20Hz to 20KHz is the goal. Systems equalized to that "standard" sound awful: bright, thin, no bass, sibilant. That is why sophisticated room correction systems have multiple curves to choose from. After you listen to sound corrected to flat you quickly move on to satisfying sound with rolled off highs and some extra bass.

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Art,

Amen!

 

[Saurav]

Last but not least, is the myth that a system that measures flat from 20Hz to 20KHz is the goal. Systems equalized to that "standard" sound awful

Sounds like a subjective assessment, i.e. opinion, to me. One that I believe in, actually, and I don't have "flat frequency response" as one of the goals of my system, but I still think that this is a completely subjective issue. And to me, that means that no one set of goals is more right or wrong than the other, as long as they're all subjective. In fact, "accuracy" in whatever way you define and measure it, is actually a more objective goal than "the way I like it". Which doesn't make it better, just more objective.

So, what it boils down to is, there's no right or wrong about what someone likes or dislikes. IMO, of course.

 

[Neil Joseph]

I keeps 'em flat.