Tone Controls and Vinyl Playback....Surprisingly Useful

Since the advent of digital playback, I have not had any use for the normal Bass/Treble controls on any of my receivers, up to and including my NAD 762. CDs that sound too thin in the bass, or bright in the treble never seemed to be helped by the normal bass/treble controls.

But now that I have vinyl back in the rig (Rega P2/Bias Cart/NAD Phono Pre-Amp) I am finding that a small tweak here or there can be an absolute life saver. While certain LPs need nothing (Dire Straights Love Over Gold, for example) some can benefit from a slight reduction in bass, or an occasional slight boost in the treble.

I don't know what the frequency centers are, but my ears are telling me that whatever they may be, they are much more complimentary to vinyl playback than digital.

Fortunately, my NAD, in stereo mode, keeps everything in the analog domain (so says NAD and my dealer), while allowing the option of the tone controls (there is a tone defeat switch, which is left on for most LPs). So, in theory, I am not impairing playback by introducing an undesireable A/D D/A step.

In any, its good to have a set of tone controls that can actually help, at least in some cases.

BGL

 

Yes, I have found the same thing. I use them now and then for the same purpose. The tone controls on my Eico HF-85 tube preamp are very good they even have thier own stage in the preamp. The bass on mine is 100hz +-10db and the treble is 10,000hz +-10db. My preamp has 5 12AX7's, two in the phono, two in the line, and one in the tone control. This preamp has a really high output for such an old unit (3 volts RMS), it was built around 1960, but it sounds excelent, very quite, and free of distortion. It was really tested rigorously in the factory. All tests were done with the volume control all the way up. THD is .1% at 3v RMS output. I am sure it is a lot lower now, I have replaced the caps with new ones.