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There's No Question -- KHorns Need Tube Gear

A variable loudness control, or as Marantz called them “contour” would be a welcome addition on any new preamp or integrated, defeatable like tone controls.

If you can get less than 60 dB at your listening position to engage you like 90 dB would it’s a win-win.

I have an old Pioneer SX-2000 from my dad, he brought it home with him from his time in Viet Nam. In addition to a loudness control, if I’m not mistaken, the bass and treble boost/cut by 15 db!

Cut my teeth on CCR on that thing
 
geoff.27 said:
A variable loudness control, or as Marantz called them “contour” would be a welcome addition on any new preamp or integrated, defeatable like tone controls.

If you can get less than 60 dB at your listening position to engage you like 90 dB would it’s a win-win.

I have an old Pioneer SX-2000 from my dad, he brought it home with him from his time in Viet Nam. In addition to a loudness control, if I’m not mistaken, the bass and treble boost/cut by 15 db!

Cut my teeth on CCR on that thing
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I'm a fan of tone controls. Those who feel it's a sin to mess with the music as delivered by the artist are entitled to their opinion.
 
Awesome. Your KHorns have the same oak finish as mine.

Ran mine this morning with my Fisher 800C and then with this sweet little converted Lowrey tube amp.

IMG_20250312_053222.jpg
 
Gigantic said:
Since PWK has been mentioned, it’s worth noting that later in life, he disavowed tube amps for solid state
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They can sound nice on decent tubes, but as the old adage goes... Garbage In / Garbage Out. I've run the 16Ω Khorns on 0.005 %THD, high damping Pioneer X80 and X50 series at 10-15 watts, and the clinical sound of those units is faithfully followed by the drivers.

As for the "blasphemy" of using tone controls, while the artist is churning out the music the engineer is laying down the tracks from within a soundproof room. I have some trepidation that no mixing, fading, or equalizing was going on in the booth at every session. Even the multitude of mics in an auditorium recording an orchestra needs to be leveled and mixed.
 
Tone Controls...
Ever listen to a Prince album? You can tell they had the bass CRANKED in that studio, then mixed the music so it was flat. Put that on flat speakers, and you have no bass. It's nice to have the bass knob on the 222C.
 
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