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Cranked up, halfway, or not at all

Where do you set your tone controls?

  • Full on baby! With the loudness on! :D

    Votes: 9 3.7%

  • Halfway on both, or close to it

    Votes: 56 23.0%

  • Turned off, I hate tone controls :mad:

    Votes: 97 39.9%

  • Turned up a little on each

    Votes: 31 12.8%

  • Bass more than treble

    Votes: 27 11.1%

  • Treble more than bass

    Votes: 21 8.6%

  • I'm all about midrange, midrange full on :)

    Votes: 1 0.4%

  • I don't have an audio system :confused:

    Votes: 1 0.4%
  • Total voters
    243
piece-it pete said:
willy,

You will be banished to the land of Bose, doomed to listen to Brittany Spears for eternity.

:D

Pete
Click to expand...

And without tone controls to reduce the brightness in THAT combination??

Much too harsh, I'd say.
 
Highway to hell.

willysan said:
I'm confused. Somehow I feel the "absolutely no control device" has become a religion rather than a matter of personal preference. When I read that I MUST listen with the controls set flat or with no control at all I can't help thinking pleasure (listening to music) has been forgotten and now we obey commandments. I'm 50 and I suffer from the logical hearing loss at high frequencies. Now I wonder: should I turn up the knob and recover the lost signal or stick to the high priest's orders? I keep the loudness button on; Am I risking my soul? Should I repent for this horrible sin?
Click to expand...

There is no confusion.
I'm sure you are going to hell! :naughty: Because what you are doing is very very wrong,it is a mortal sin. :D
You are doomed. :yes:

clint.
 
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Willysan, Don't be upset! I am sure you will have lots of like minded company!
Gary
 
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No one really knowns where those tone controls were at the time of the final down mix session but that's because every engineer and recording material is different! My setup is flat first " then " runs through an EQ to suite my taste and NOT the engineer. :no: My room acustics does not dictate how the sound should sound like. There are no rooms I'm aware of are perfect for music listening unless it was design for it. Like I stated before, I sure would hate to purchase my plasma flat screen TV with no ability to control my picture quailty - that would SUCK royale! So what if those brits like their gear have no tone controls that doesn't make it right!




clint e. said:
Hey SX,
Do you know,in the final mix,what the position where the sound engineers put the tone controls ?
Yes,they use all the effects and parametric sound controls in the recording process,but in the final listening they ear with all and i mean all the tone controlls in flat position. :naughty:
Of course,in your home you can put or take,if you like,a little bass or treble. Mostly because of your room sound acustics are not good.
But,if you have a good room for listening music you must put the tone controls in flat,because that's the way music was done to listen by the engineers. :yes:
You surely know,maybe better than me,that many amplifiers British brands doesn't have any tone controls... :scratch2:

Anyway Viva la Musica,
wich is all that matters. :thmbsp:

clint.
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yeah right! - i can see it now, back in my couch I sit and hummm that doesn't sound right, so I get up walk back behind the cabinets turn up the mid cross adjustment walk back hummm still doesn't sound right...repeat above! :no: nah I'll stick to the tone controls.




Negotiableterms said:
Between the gain controls on the active crossover and the little knobs and switches on the backs of the speakers, you can effectively get the sound where you like it and not even have tone controls!
Click to expand...
 
Hey SX,
You can use and abuse of your tone controls if you feel that your music sounds better that way but,please do not try to compare two completly different things:
Sound and image.

Have fun.
clint.
 
I've said before that I've thought of busting off the detents on my tone controls to get a couple more dB :)

Bass at 3/4, treble full on, loudness usually off.
 
Do tone controls actually mess with the image?? That's a new one on me.

Kam: Geeez, you reeeally like to color that sound, don't you? Did you have a bad experience once with a mid driver, and hated anything to do with midrange ever since? :)
 
No, not at all......but when I play "Brick House", I wanna feel some booty thumpin :boink:

Somehow, every time I try to set tone controls flat on any piece of music, I can never say that I think it sounds better. So the hell with what is accepted audiophile practice, I do it my way :D
 
try listening to a well recorded stereo track with your tone controls set to zero..and then switched out of circuit using the 'defeat' button( assuming your amp has one).
..if you hear 'any' difference in the sound with the tone controls 'defeated' and in circuit then they are obviously having some 'effect' on the signal as it passes through them...? :scratch2:
 
I got to play with one of those old Yamaha amps with a spectrum analyzer built into the EQ. It just played pink noise, analyzed a mic input and displayed the resulting response curve, as mangled by room acoustics, from wherever I positioned the mike in the room. My dorm room at the time apparently mangled it quite severely, and the results varied quite a bit as I moved the mic arount to different parts of the room.

So room acoustics do apparently play a major part in the response curve, and decent tone controls may help quite a bit there. Especially if it has something to do with "booty"!

BTW: Anyone use a graphic EQ out there? Maybe even a digital one? I'm surprised no-one's mentioned those yet.
 
So many questions for a simple answer...

What is "true sound" ?!
Audio nirvana is an utopia?!
Solid state or tubes?!
Vintage are better than new systems?!
New valves,army valves or NOS?!
What is the true sound of a band?!The one wich they have when they play live,or the other one in the studio?!
Stereo or sorround sound?!
Vinyl,cd,sacd or dvd-A?!
...and when a band play live wich are the best sound?!The sound they have in the stadium,or in the New York Palladium?!...or that one in a London or Madrid Pub?!
After all,what is the best way to listen music ?
I do it my way... :D

clint.
 
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SX1080Pioneer said:
My setup is flat first " then " runs through an EQ to suite my taste and NOT the engineer.
Click to expand...

I like this approach for new recordings. I also start with a flat audition, and give myself some time to get used to a recording before I mess with it. I'm always curious to see what the sound engineer did with it and how it works with the limitations of my equipment and the room before I mess with it.

Leaving the bass and treble cranked all the time regardless of the input is like dumping salt on your food before you even taste it.
 
Oops...

...my mistake:

john_w said:
BTW: Anyone use a graphic EQ out there? Maybe even a digital one? I'm surprised no-one's mentioned those yet.
Click to expand...

That is, other than SX1080Pioneer.
 
To each their own. People that are too afraid to touch the tone controls on things so equipped for fear of molesting the sound is equally pointless.
 
Oh really uhmm. Two different things hey - sound and picture, okay - both reproduce signals CORRECT!? Both are under the heading " Entertaintment equipment....CORRECT!? One reproduces just sound and the other both audio and video, can you please elaberate your definition of " two different things? :scratch2: :smoke:




clint e. said:
Hey SX,
You can use and abuse of your tone controls if you feel that your music sounds better that way but,please do not try to compare two completly different things:
Sound and image.

Have fun.
clint.
Click to expand...
 
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That's entertaintment.

SX1080Pioneer said:
Oh really uhmm. Two different things hey - sound and picture, okay - both reproduce signals CORRECT!? Both are under the heading " Entertaintment equipment....CORRECT!? One reproduces just sound and the other both audio and video, can you please elaberate your definition of " two different things? :scratch2: :smoke:
Click to expand...

Why don't you try listen to your records on your TV?! :lmao:
If you try harder,maybe you could "see" the difference. :D

That's entertaintment. :yes:

clint.
 
On the box of my last purchase...

"Listen, and you'll see."

- Bowers and Wilkens motto

But then, their sibling company's amplifiers (Rotel) don't have tone controls. :scratch2:


Is a video monitor a close analogy? I could go either way on that one, but if anything, I'd rather have the tone controls on audio gear, than picture controls on a well designed TV, IF it were factory set to spec (although none of them are - they just give you a calibration DVD and make the customer do it.) Like audio, you'd have to use a well recorded source (DVD or Laserdisc) to evaluate it. Unlike audio, at least you have a fairly consistant signal (RGB, brightness, etc.) from a given media type. Audio still varies a lot, even among well recorded media of all types. Somehow, there's just more disagreement on what sounds good vs. what looks good. Audio is perceived as being more subjective.
 
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