Tone controls remain essential because recordings and rooms vary widely

Evidence

It has become a part of high-end audiophile folklore that tone controls damage the “purity” of sound, and some equipment proudly has no such controls. The underlying assumption has to be that recordings are flawless, but from common experience this is simply not the case. Some recordings have insufficient bass, others too much. Some are too bright, others too dull, and there are other audible maladies. Recording studios are not uniformly calibrated—see the “circle of confusion” in Figure 1.7 and the enormous variations in bass response found in a survey of recording studios (Mäkivirta and Anet, 2001). Add to that the fact that we may wish to listen at lower than “reference” sound levels at times, and it is hard to avoid the notion that a bass tone control can be an important contributor to achieving rewarding listening experiences. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 348

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘circle of confusion’ thread from Chapter 1 about uncalibrated recording chains.