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I like my system flat, no tone controls, no eq..........what is your preference, and why.

A poster on another thread here has encouraged me to post this. Been an audio professional and a hobbyist for 50 tears. I had my time with eq, tone controls ( even reverb and time delay units ). I am currently at the point where I need nothing to alter the recordings I listen to, nor to compensate for room aberrations. I have spent lots of money on equipment , had equipment on loan, of all types ( pretty much a bit of everything, for the most part ) and I have tweaked, and tweaked, and tweaked. I have recently tooled down to a much simpler and less expensive system, and I find I am the happiest I have ever been. Might be my amp, my passive unit, my speakers...…….yes, all of that. Yes, all of that is important, but it is the system synergy that has made me realize that changing anything with an eq or tone controls took me further from that synergy, that balance. I accept, and enjoy my recordings for what they are. Some better than others ( sq ). But, I am enjoying the brilliance of all the studio work put into them,  exactly as they were intended to be listened to. This is me. I do not believe in right or wrong, better or worse, newer vs older, yada yada yada. I have believed, and have stated, particularly in this hobby, to each his own. I hear fuse differences, power cable differences, etc. Some believe I was born a bat. I am happy of my gift, not just hearing well, but through the years, teaching myself " what it is I like ", which is the key for most of us. I am not sure where this thread will go, but I put it out there, and hope folks will drop in, even though much of it might have been stated before in other threads. Thank you A'gon family, be well, and Enjoy ! MrD.
mrdecibel
oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
1,076 posts
 
Me too...except for my sub.  That I use a Velodyne SMS 1 to apply low pass filter / slope / EQ only to the sub.  I run the mains full range....

I use a conrad johnson Classic 2SE.  I love the simplicity and sonic signature of this pre.  It is fully analog , no remote, no tone or balance... nothing but source selector, volume , and power switch.   This is paired with Quicksilver Mid Mono 40 watt amps that can use a number of different output tubes.  

My speakers are Klipsch Heresy III.   Although the Heresys don't have deep bass, the bass they provide till they roll off is quite good.  This meshes well with a steep x-over slope in my room , and  along with the SMS EQ avoids the room mode boominess that plagued my system with other floor standers...  

With no sub the bass is still satisfying and  no tone controls are necessary... and if I do want to tweek the sound I can swap out the EL34 for 6L6, or KT 66 or 77 or 88.   My last three preamps had no tone and I didn't miss them at all.
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
2,766 posts
 
I make a db or two in the bass and or treble from time to time.  Most of the recordings I have sound great at the flat setting (tone controls bypassed) but there are certain cd's that really need a little adjustment to make it listenable (Kick Out the Jams by the MC5 comes to mind).  That is one of the main reasons I went with a Mac...tone controls.
m-db's avatar
m-db
313 posts
 
My subwoofers have extensive remote controlled adjustment parameters. Whether a track needs a simple change in polarity to lock in a kick drum or a personally subjective change in LF volume to one of the slightly away from flat preset equalization options, I use low frequency EQ and tone often.

Some of my wife's Grateful Dead recordings are like fingernails on a blackboard. That Loki might be a welcome solution, thanks WG. 


marklings
24 posts
 
I sympathize with the OP's viewpoint, still my 2 c:

1. Effects, reverb delays, compression, they all belong to music production, not to HiFi listening. Whoever produced the recording you are listening to has applied those already; no point in adding them.

2. EQ is another story; it's not the devil. Better do without but sometimes your room has a less than flat response that needs to be corrected. You can go at that with the optimal and expensive way of modifying your room or with then less than optimal but way more convenient and less expensive addition of a proper EQ. My room booms at 70 Hz, it's a square box, bad for listening but I can't reasonably change it or add traps. So I do EQ; not perfect but betters the listening experience.

All the best,

Mark.
roberjerman
2,086 posts
 
I will accept whatever the mastering quality is on the CD/LP/RTR. Trying to tweak the SQ with tone controls or equalizer never seems to yield a satisfactory result. 
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