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Without tone controls music sounds flat and lifeless. I don't understand why people would not use them.

I only use the tone contols in one recoring out of 100, but why skip the salt, if the food tastes better with it? The subject makes a good test for audio fundamentalism!

Sin is right. If your audio system doesn't sound right without them, you've got bigger problems...

I KEEP MY BASS & TREBLE CONTROLS OUT OF THE WAY OR OFF ALL TOGETHER. I PREFFER SOUND AS IT WAS RECORDED.

I would turn down the bass a bit in the evenings if my preamp had tone controls.

on my previous PRE i had it and used them only for very bad sounding radio stations. i'm considering digital real-time EQ for room correction.

Makes imperfect recordings musical again. Could have purchased much more expensive preamps, but they lacked these controls. Still a Class B system.

The only thing I can fool around is is the sub amplifier.

I confess I use the bass countour control on my Adcom preamp. A bass control is a help to apartment dwellers like myself. I purosefully bought small stand-mount speakers that roll off the bass around 65Hz. When my downstairs neighbor is home, I can listen at average levels and not bother him. When he is gone I turn on the bass contour on my Adcom preamp, which boosts the bass around 30Hz, and it sounds more full range. It is not perfect, and it can slow down the lower midrange, but it is an acceptable compromise. I will even confess that I sold my old Conrad-Johnson PV-10A tube preamp to buy the Adcom GFP-565. I WANTED the bass contour and a headphone jack. The Adcom is not better, but it serves my needs better right now. When I have my own house I will sell of my sinful products and repent by buying a full-range system.

I use tone controls for BOTH room and recording "deficiencies".

My current preamp is an Audio Research Ref II (Mk I), which has no tone controls. However, occasionally, when a recording has particularly bloated bass balance, I may temporarily reduce the gain on my subwoofer.

Now you've opened a can of worms. I just hate the fact that you cannot buy a decent pre-amp these days without tone controls or at least filters. I use my 15hz low filter to dampen subsonic vibrations from my turntable to save my woofers. Occasionally, when playing old-time swing or early jazz, it makes sense to "correct" things a bit. And, hey, it ain't all that hard to make these controls switchable so they don't affect the "pure" signal. I just don't get it. Until the day I die, there are two things I MUST have in a pre-amp: a "mode" control that at least allows me mono (for diagnostic purposes mostly) and at least a friggin' low filter if not full tone controls. And, I'll go one step further. I like really well thought out "loudness" controls to "correct" the deficiencies of human hearing at low volumes. The ol' "Fletcher-Munson" curves. Now, what is about the most worthless control on a pre-amp yet all have it? The freakin' balance control. I've stepped on dirt covered in cow crap that was worth more than that control. Yet, where do you find ground loops, insolvable "hums", just a big pain in the ass. I think balance controls are worth about as much as a cankor sore on a "sensitive member". Yet, all "audiophile" pre-amps have that worthless control but espouse "purety" by avoiding controls with so much more utility - tone and filters. And, "mode" controls. Uh, don't get me started here. A really BIG peeve.

What are tone controls.

In all honesty, I rarely find a need for equalizers. They just add to the signal path. I know that some people use them for room correction, but I have never found the need. I know people will probably roast me for this, but isn

Real equipment does not have these functions.

Sometimes if you have old records,LP's Tapes,45's 78's the tone can help them sound better (SOME TIMES!)

It might appear a hair-shirt approach to start with, but I've run my primary system without tone controls for quite a few years now. I was surprised, but very quickly you forget they even existed. Does it make a difference to the sound? I'm not sure I can tell, but it does take away the nagging feeling of "that's the wrong setting" or "I haven't got this set up right" that one gets when the tone controls aren't in the flat position. Thus the enjoyment factor is increased, which is what it's all about in the end.

My Soundlabs have tone controls on the back and I've found them to make a huge improvement.

I find the Cello Palette MIV an absolute must in my system.

Only in my car!

I forget to use them!

There are just too many variables to be able to say "if I don't color the music, I listening to it the way the artist intended".

Very sparringly, I use the bass control in order to avoid shuffling the level control of my subwoofer.

I run a 24 band EQ thru my tape monitor (hk 25ii) and can tweak my re-coned, 30yr old Bose 601's in my "over-stuffed" living room to a balanced sound of tight base and the "tinkling" of triangle and the simmer of cymbals...

It's true that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. I use that rule to draw an analogy to audio tone controls. My preamp is devoid of tone controls because any extraneous circuitry in a given system detracts from from the sonic integrity of that system. If you need to use tone controls in your system, you're simply compensating for a less than musical setup.

If you have them on you pre-amp, it is time to start saving for an upgrade!

System: Rega Planet and VPI HW19jr playing into Rega Mira integrated, with Sonus Faber Concertino speakers. I've never felt a need for tone controls with this system. On my old college receiver in the basement and my HT setup the tone controls seem to come in to play quite frequently . . as I try to make each cd listenable. For some reason these adjustments aren't necessary with the Mira.

Tone controls? I don't have no tone controls! I don't need no steenking tone controls!

On my present preamp, I can only control the source and volume, but that wasn

I use a Conrad-Johnson PV10A. There are no tone controls. This is as it should be. I don't want any electronic coloration in my music. If my room has deficiencies (as it does), I change the room to compensate as well as I can.