[Ethan Winer]

Arny,

their infatuation with implicit tone controls that can only be changed by
swapping equipment

That's a great point. There was a discussion of my Believe article recently
at the Home Theater Talk forum, and below is a brief excerpt from that
thread. It never would have occurred to me that someone would intentionally
use a crappy cable (with HF losses) to "tune" a system.

--Ethan

====================

A guy posted:

"If you have assembled a system and the highs are bugging you a bit and you
get some boutique cable and it tames the highs a bit for some perfectly
scientifically justifiable reason, then that wire is adequate for that user,
no?"

I pointed out:

"Sure, but you could just as easily use the receiver's built-in tone
controls for free. Versus paying big bux for a boutique cable."

The guy comes back with:

"An EQ maybe but with a tone control you may not get the result you want. It
might cut a large swath at 10k while you need a roll-off starting at 12k.
But I get your point."

I replied:

"Well, okay, but for $150 you can get a parametric EQ and have EXACTLY the
curve you want. And you can change it as often as you want, even for every
CD (or LP). Versus endlessly searching, as many do, for that perfect but
elusive synergy by repeatedly buying new combinations to see what "works
well" together."