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The lack of standardized EQ on many recordings is further exacerbated by the absence of tone controls on most high-end audio equipment.

I sometimes try tone controls, but never for very long because they always boost some other frequency I prefer left alone. EQ machines are better, but still not a long term user.

What is the problem with using tone controls? I have owned preamps that did not have tone controls; however, when playing certain recordings, I found it necessary to use the very tone controls that were not available to me. Does incorporating tone controls color music? Most definately! The question here is whether we are going to employ demagaguery with respect to this issue, or whether we are going to be prudent audiophiles and employ those tools that are available to us in an attempt to enhance our listening experience. It seems to me that, in an imperfect world, we need all the resources we can lay our hands on in order to reach our own perfections.

No, just pure music

Don't you have to have them first to use them? Opps let me check? yep this is Stereophile not Stereo Review...got a little scared there for a minute but it is halloween tonight.

Hey they're there why not?

I don't have any equalization on my preamp, but I do have a Receiver wired into the tape monitor loop that allows for tone controls when required. I found that many of my older blues on LP need a little help. For the rest of my more modern CD's it goes through flat. I must admit that the Velodyne sub does have a remote control level control that does get used for recordings that have excess bass, enough to piss off the neighbours two doors down. Me a purist,no not quite...

In the ideal, there would be no need for bass/treble knobs. but this ain't an ideal world. recordings suck!

Don't have them and don't miss them.

wow didn't think you were allowed to have them and read stereophile

I use my pre-amp's soncially superior bypass output.

Tone controls just don't belong on serious audio-equipment. They will cause distortion in the frequency and in the phase-relation of the music signal. The latter totally ruins the mood and the feeling in the music.

Some CD recordings are a little bright. For example I have a 2 CD set of Big Band songs re-mastered from original mono recordings. The soundstage and image is more precise with the bass and treble attenuated -1 to -2db. Most of my vinyl and CD collection is enjoyed with the bass and treble defeated.

Ah for the old days when men were men and preamps had tone controls and a phono input.

recording, mixing and mastering engineers use it, why not me, the final user?

the room itself is pretty good. i do have a paragraphic equalizer from my old days, however i don't any longer need it. listening "flat" is really the only reasonable audiophile conclusion.

grown-up preamps don't include tone controls

I live in an apartment and my Parasound doesn't have loudness compensation so I increase the bass slightly at lower listening levels.

There's no controls on my amp, but I chose my Cables Hi and Lo to tailor the sound to my tastes

I would rather not, but I've learned that if used judiciously a well designed bass and treble control can really be a good thing. I usually decrease bass and increase treble much more than increasing bass or decreasing treble.

I have a Stereophile Class A system, but use a Rane equalizer to compensate for a bright room. The wife factor prevents more conventional room treatment.

I also have a recording studio.The reality is, we all EQ like hell.There are no purest recordings

Bryston BP-20 Preamp doesnt have tone controls. Prefer not to have them.

Audio sin? Ha! If it sounds good, do it baby!

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My preamp allows me to totally bypass all tone control circuitry and I've become very accustomed to listening to media as it's been recorded. At one time I used a digital graphical equalizer. Using pink noise and a microphone it did allow me to balance my listening room's frequency response and dampen nodes, but it also introduced far too many undesireable artifacts including a substantial raising of the noise floor. So these days I run a purely "atonal" system.

I have several historic recordings that sound better with a bit of bass boost or treble cut. I use tone controls when I play these recordings and turn them off for everything else.

I mainly listen to acoustic jazz. Is there anybody out there that thinks that CDs are true to the timbre of musical instruments? While admittedly a compromise, tone controls judiciously used can offset some of the nastiness of digital and compensate for LP equalization, which persisted in sound studios well beyond the time the RIAA standard was supposed to have been universally adopted. Tube afficianados constantly chat on-line about rolling tubes for this or that tonal effect, while they religiously resist tone controls. And audiophiles tout this or that interconnect for its tonality, experimenting with the latest and greatest and spending hundreds of dollars for subtle changes. The obvious conclusion to draw is that we all use "tone controls" in our systems, it's just that some of us do it with tubes, interconnects and cables, and some of us admit to the audiophile venial sin of turning down the unrealistically heavy bass or treble when it's warranted.

Ya, you betcha. Them enjineers just don't know what they're listenin to. Lousy engineering makes for lousy sounding recordings that need more than just tone controls, but aside from not listening to the stuff they are the only chance we have of getting close to reality.

no need