"Robert Morein" wrote in message
...

"Mark D" wrote in message
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Hi All, Sorry if this has been covered a zillion times before, but I
have some questions concerning Hi-End equipment, and thier features, or
I should say, lack of.

I notice that many modern high end Pre-Amplifiers have an absence of
simple Tone Controls.

I basically understand the reasoning behind this, as the simpler the
chain, the less interference, or "destruction" I should say of the
purity of sound by introducing Tone Controls into the Pre-Amplifier's
Circuittry.

Do purists now cringe at the thought of having at least a Bass-Treble
Control on thier Pre-Amps?

I don't think they should. One of the untoward effects of high end
marketing
has been the deletion of useful features. However, tone controls don't
work
very well for any purpose.


Shouldn't high end gear have tone controls that are more useful and more
numerous, say several parametric controls instead of just a bass and treble
control? Digital controls that keep the Q constant are not that expensive.
Many rooms seem to cause a bump in bass response around 50 Hz or so, yet
even tone cotrols are set around 100 Hz in most cases.

We would all assume with these modern Pre-Amps, that the signal produced
would be flat from xxHz to xx,xxxHz, but I wonder what one now does due
to inefficiencies in room acoustics, or the inefficiencies of a given
speaker?

1. Match the speakers to the room. Find the right position.
2. Treat the room with absorbers.
3. As a last resort, attempt a touchup with an eq. Do not reverse this
order.

Why would that be bad? They are all forms of EQ?

Does one with these caliber of systems now have to typically resort to
modifying thier speaker's x-overs, spend countless $100's, to $1,000's
of dollars in room treatments, call in the "sound techs-geek squad" for
advice-testing or what?

Is the addition of a simple Graphic EQ such a taboo thing nowadays?

I do see EQ's in abundance for the pro user, but really not much
available for the home audio user?

That is because equalizers work poorly to correct defects of small rooms.

In what respect do they work poorly?

In
very large spaces, the modes tend to merge toward a continuum, so the
professional problem is different.

Why wold n't a 31 band 1/3 octave Eq work just as well in a smaller room?

What is left out there? Is there such a thing as a good EQ that will not
be a detriment to high-end audio components?

Any gadget damages the signal.

It may add some distortion or noise, but typical EQ's are very quiet and low
distortion.
As long as these still are not audible when summed with the other devices,
what's the problem?

However, it's a common tendency of the high
end to prefer simplicity to an actual solution. But remember: equalizers
do
not work well in the home.

An offfer of proof would be good about now.

Use one only as a touchup. In the past, speakers
had much less regular frequency response. Equalizers remain useful to
correct speaker anomalies, but little of these exist.

You must not be reading the same speaker reviews I am. Most speakers seem
to have a bump in respnse at the low end strarting at around 100 Hz and
rising to a peak at around 40-50 Hz before falling off.

As an example of my personal use, I have a 36 band equalizer which is set
to
provide a 2dB boost in the 2.15 kHz band to a set of Acoustat
electrostatic
panels; no other adjustments are used. In another system, I use a bass
equalizer to flatten the room response of a closet subwoofer.

Or am I missing the boat somehow, that people who own audio gear like
$12K Krell Amps, $7K Krell Pre-Amps, and $14K Speaker systems have no
need for such an animal?

TIA, Mark
(PS: I posted this to RAHE, and it seems everyone there is afraid to
respond)


It could be that. I have posted on a couple of occasions on the lack of
publications on how a home user can use an eq. From the lack of response,
I
conclude that the subject has not received sufficient investigation for
someone to do a FAQ.

I know my response to this poster was approved and will show up soon. I
believe the poster is just not used to the delay from a moderated group.