Blasphemy to use "Tone Controls" on Mc Pre-Amp?

[Charles]

The solution to not using equalization unusually involves more expense. I quit tone controls many years ago. There are so many things that can create harshness from cables to speakers and each change alters the sound. Most are simply not willing or can't afford the long journey. So tone controls are a Bandaid but a very important Bandaid because enjoying your system while you are attempting improvements is important. For me I learned to listen to the music and enjoy it through the harshness and hardness always with the thought of looking forward to my next upgrade.

[Ampteks]

No tone controls, one less thing I need to do...

[Beet Farmer]

I wish I had defeatable high quality tone controls.
For a time I owned a Behringer DEQ2496 and it could sit between a spinner and a DAC and make digital adjustments.
To me that would be the solution, just better quality.
Or leave it flat.
I think a certain amount of brainwashing by audio gurus and magazines have clearly made using tone controls into some sort of evil.

[Charles]

For me over the past forty years it has been enjoying a great system while planning my next upgrade. Compareed to the public everyone of us has super sound. If you employ tone controls it becomes more difficult to make the next improvement because you have been listening through an equalizer. Since the equipment we buy is so expensive you need to be crystal clear in what it is you are trying to accomplish. That's why there is no right or wrong here. I just always wanted to hear my raw system. Forty years later I have a system that needs no equalization. I can't remember when I have even used a balance control. If the recording is a little off I note it but still enjoy it. To each his own. But know what it is you want to accomplish. Dont buy the next beautiful Mac piece. Have a plan. Otherwise you will spend many thousands and accomplish little in the way of better sound.

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by Beet Farmer

I wish I had defeatable high quality tone controls.
For a time I owned a Behringer DEQ2496 and it could sit between a spinner and a DAC and make digital adjustments.
To me that would be the solution, just better quality.
Or leave it flat.
I think a certain amount of brainwashing by audio gurus and magazines have clearly made using tone controls into some sort of evil.

Funny but I don't ever remember reading in a magazine that tone controls are verboten. This idea seems to expounded more by "internet audio experts".

[crwilli]

If your system sounds good to you with an equalizer or tone controls ‘max’ed’ out, so be it.

While a purer/simpler signal chain might allow better sound, there is no guarantee.

[Mamrak1]

How many people cry about using tone controls yet dump money into changing out tubes and trying different cables to shape the sound?

[62caddy]

For me, there is nothing worse than having to passively endure material improperly equalized with no ability to intervene. The finest, most perfectly equalized and calibrated system is no match for what's being fed into it and not all recording engineers are created equal.

[MrG]

ditto that!
I found a reasonable solution by having a graphic equalizer in a tape loop, so I can make fine tone adjustments when the source material warrants it, and when not I just switch it out of the signal path. On a second system the Pre tone controls can be switched in or out of the signal path.
For me its about a smile inducing pleasurable listening experience.

[stereo_5]

I am quite happy to use a judicious amount of tone controls if the recording calls for it. That was one of the main reasons I bought my C2500 preamp.