Vacuum tubed tone control???

Onhwy61, I believe you're right. Being that it's June 4 and not April 1, I didn't see it clearly.

Of course you can add a tube device, like the MF X-10D mentioned by a previous poster. You can also add some type of tone control. However, looking at the art posters you have in your audio room, it makes me wonder if the problem isn't the media you choose to play.

Lots of rock music originally intended for vinyl sounds horrible on CD. Do you always feel the need for tone controls in your system, or is it just when playing older rock CDs? Do you ever play anything where you don't hear the need for added musicality?

Just curious as I have lots of older CDs (and some newer one, like U2) that are nearly unlistenable on a high resolution system. They do, however, sound just fine played on my car cd player!

If the issue is making bad recording more listenable, without affecting your good sounding CDs, maybe you could add a musical/colored DAC between the CD player and pre-amp. You could have the analog output of your CD player and the analog output from the DAC connected to different inputs on your pre-amp. You could then "engage it" as needed by simply selecting the appropriate input on your pre-amp.

Enjoy,

TIC

Hello all, Thanks for all your input. This has turned into an interesting post. It's taken me two and a half years to bring my system to the level that it's at today. I thought that it was well matched, resolute, dynamic, live sounding--everything that I was looking for. The soundstaging especially is superlative. But after retubing my McIntosh MR71 fm tuner, I realized that there was something missing. As I said before, the MR71 is very musical, but still surprisingly clear. Obviously, the tuner sends an audio signal through the preamp, amps and then the speakers. No problem there. If the tuner sounds good then the downstream components are good as well. My EMM Labs cd player, although still breaking in, is great sounding--neutral perhaps, but it's not that musical. It gives what it's fed--no more no less. Thus my post concerning a "tone control" or equalizer. What I was wondering was if someone made an "audiophile grade" equalizer, that wouldn't harm the audio signal, into which I could insert one or two pair of tubes--say 12au7's? I'm getting the impression that that device/equalizer doesn't exist without harming the audio signal. Thanks again for you responses...Onhwy61, You have a nice system, by the way. I especially like your McIntosh C-42 preamplifier "w/ 8 band EQ".

You're better off addressing which component or components are unmusical.

IMO, and it's only my opinion...neutral components inherently create an unmusical system. They may send the signal along to the loudspeakers in an unaltered state, but those systems that I have heard with this attribute have sounded dry and lifeless...although one could clearly hear the second trombonist's shoe squeak.

Now, I'm donning my Nomex suit to protect against the inevitable flames from the Absolutists in the group.

Seriously, though, try a Paradisea DAC. It's $500. Cheap. Like the relative cost of a single potato chip to the cost of an entire lunch when you consider the total cost of your system. It will make your digital source musical, and it will bring a smile to your face. Promise.

:)

Give some consideration to the following pro audio oriented tubed EQs

D.W. Fearn VT-4 -- it's mono, you'll need two
SPL Qure
Tube Tech EQ-1 -- it's mono
Drawmer 1961
Millennia NSEQ -- has both tube and solid state EQ
Manley Massive Passive

All of the above are built to audiophile quality standards and will allow you tremendous flexibility in how you can shape your system's sound. Unfortunately, they only offer up to 4 bands of EQ and can't match my McIntosh 8 band. Mine will still be bigger than yours!

Seriously, I do find it a little strange that you want your digital source to match the frequency and dynamically limited performance of your FM. If that's really what you want to do, then you might want to reconsider how you put your system together. It could be that you're not a high powered solid state kind of guy?