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The use of equipment as "tone controls"

Several times in my Audiogon reading and posting over the last couple of years, I've noticed this or that contributor commenting along the lines of: "You shouldn't use your amp/cables/cartridge/whatever as a tone control."

I assume what this is supposed to mean is that there is some absolutely correct sound out there, and we ought not have audio equipment of any kind that deviates from that absolutely correct sound.

I might be able to buy into this if we were listening to live instruments (although their sound is, of course, affected by the space in which they are played, the position of the listener, etc., so is not itself "absolute"). But we're not listening to live music. We're listening to recordings. There are microphones, cables, recording equipment, mastering equipment, storage medium, etc, all of which come between us and the original sound--not to mention the taste and perception of the engineers, producers, etc. In that sense, what we hear coming out of our speakers is all illusion, anyway. And the illusion comes in quite a few "flavors." On one system I had, Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard sounded like he was in my living room. But Leonard Bernstein conducting the NY Phil in the early 60's was so shrill it made me run screaming from the room. In my current system, Bill Evans doesn't sound as "right there" as he used to (now I'm a few of rows back, yet still quite happy), but Leonard Bernstein doesn't make my ears bleed, either.

How did I work that? I experimented with different equipment. I used the equipment as "tone controls" (I guess). It's all respectible equipment: ARC, VTL, BAT, Cardas, etc. Maybe it reduced the "accuracy" of the reproduction of Bill Evans, but it increased the "accuracy" of the reproduction of Leonard Bernstein. Maybe. But who knows for sure?

We all tailor the sound of our systems to suit our preferences. What's wrong with that? And, most equipment has it's own sound character. That seems like a good thing, to me. It allows us to tailor our sound.

Now what we REALLY need is a good set of tone controls on our fancy pre-amps, so we can really tailor our sound!

Food for comment?
eweedhome
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
since all equipment is colored a stereo system is a tone control. you can't avoid coloration. all stereo systems are colored, since all components are imperfect.

the only issue is will the voicing be deliberate or unintended ?
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,333 posts
 
Wireless200,

Do you see it too?

I constantly see audio performance specifications raining down on me from all sides.

I thought it was just me ;-)
glenn_garza
61 posts
 
Nilthepill, when I wrote that everything sounded practically the same, I pretty much meant that. Though the groups, music, dates, etc. were all different, all could have been recorded in the same studio, and all artists were in the same or similar mood. I was not alone when listening to this system, but was the only pedestrian (non audio field related) that ended up with a negative impression of the system.

I have heard other types of systems that to me were a joke, incapable of producing anything approaching an actual performance, but others just thought that stuff was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I guess it just depends on what we want in our home with our money, which will in part be based on what we know.
eweedhome OP
227 posts
 
Glenn-Garza: A year or two ago, I went on "the great speaker hunt," which involved listening to speakers at various audio stores within 250 miles of where I live. I was quite surprised at the number of systems that I heard that, to me, sounded upleasant, even irritating. In ALL cases, what was unpleasant was that the systems sounded too bright. You could certainly hear LOADS of detail, but there was nothing "real" about the sound. Hearing lots of detail is very exciting I suppose, but (to paraphrase Wireless200), at a certain point, you want the "steak"...assuming you know what "steak" tastes like. (I wonder if it's true...as I've heard some speculate, that many "audiophiles" have actually heard relatively little live music, especially of an acoustic--as opposed to electric--nature?)
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halcro
2,289 posts
 
Eweedhome I agree with you.......and I've been listening to high end speakers for 30 years!
Out of the dozens that I've heard, I can count on one hand (with fingers left over), the speakers that sounded like 'music'!
I really blame speaker designers and their infuriating quasi-scientific cross-over formulas and soft-ware.
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