who wants tone controls on your next preamp?

By tone control, it is easy to adjust treble and brass level to my favour. I understood many hi-end users will not like this method because tone control like a additive to music and not really "sound direct'. They like using cable/power cord/DAS to change the tone w/ so much money.

I like tone control and many big brand equipped with it. such as Marzantz, Luxman & McIntosh and many many.

Just for sharing

Parasound P7 has tone controls on remote. Bass management too if you're using subs.

If your tone controls are A) sufficiently flexible and B)used properly, they will increase the fidelity of frequency response in virtually any system in virtually any room. Key disclaimer : "virtually".

The example I have in mind is digital room correction (DRC) in the bass region. The trade-off is that effective DRC is executed in the digital domain and subjects analog signals to ADC. Some (LP types in particular) may find that too hard to swallow and I get that. But, if you use subwoofers, you needn't go that route above the x-over point and your main signal can remain analog all the way..

Here, the trade-off is (generally) that you must employ an active x-over unit to roll off the main speakers and use corrected subwoofers.. IMO, the negative effects (if any) of a good x-over are dwarfed by the improved frequency response in the bass. I acknowledge that others will disagree on this point.

You can also use a sub/main set-up with main speakers that meaningfully roll off at/above 80hz (where room effects are doing the most damage). No x-over required in the main path and you can keep it completely pure. Just "snug up" the subs from below. The trade-off is a limited choice of main speakers.

Either way, I'm squarely in the "tone control" camp - just make mine DRC.

Marty

PS I agree with the notion that the audiophile idea of "TAS" is kind of misguided. I don't primarily ascribe that to differences in physiologyor even differences in recordings (though these are definitely significant), but to differences in listening rooms.

If nothing else, I would appreciate a control that addresses the most common frequency problems found in recordings. Even a well-tuned system is going to sound edgy when the recording is edgy, and some great performances are only available that way.

You may not realize it but if you have speakers with a passive crossover, you have tone controls in your system. Actually it's even worse than the electronic tone controls as you have high current going through the crossover which limits dynamics and could add more distortion than the line-level counterparts.

I discovered this when running Seas ER15RLY full range with no crossover. These speakers dropped nearly 10dB at 100hz. But when used in commercial speakers you may not only see flat to 60hz but even a 5db BOOST at 100hz. Ain't coming from the driver itself, that's for sure!