Tone controls are necessary in audio systems

[academia50]

...............

For the major Japanese manufacturers of the 1980s, the plan seems to have been to make tone controls extremely flexible in order to please everyone and meet all practical and imaginable requirements at once, just by rolling off or boosting frequencies with response slopes of any form possible at low cost. When you are left with distorted, weak or no signal after some years of use though, the novelty of these extra controls can wear thin.

.............

There are cleaning sprays that attack the plastics and carbon deposited on the tracks of modern potentiometers, I used to take them apart and clean them when it was possible due to the size and type of construction.

I remember that very versatile - sophisticated tone controls were a very used feature on Yamaha receivers and / or amplifiers. Marantz was one of the few who added midtone control in those days.

 

[wiseoldtech]

My Technics uses a pair of IC's for the EQ, so no noise from the pots.
Smooth as silk.

 

[jean-paul]

Yes but not the best sounding unless it are IC's from NJR.

 

[Disco-Pete]

Technics- very clinical 2 dimensional sound. Lots of IMD😎

 

[wiseoldtech]

Technics- very clinical 2 dimensional sound. Lots of IMD😎

Nope, not at all.
You're too biased.

 

[Disco-Pete]

Thank you🙂

 

[Galu]

My son waltzed off with my tone control devoid amplifier.

It has a switch to bypass the balance control - I hope that is permissible! 😉

 

[Disco-Pete]

Okay now that's a bit overboard🙄


the bypass, I mean🙂

 

[stocktrader200]

passive tone controls from SX-780 driven by 6922 triodes. Works fantastic as the frequency response is 20 - 20khz +- 0.05 db when centered and loudness off.
all tube boost and cut which is really nice.

 

[Worldie]

Technics- very clinical 2 dimensional sound. Lots of IMD😎

This is more subjectivist nonsense, I fear.

 

[stocktrader200]

Technics always had very low IMD as well as THD as I remember.

 

[Disco-Pete]

Not the way I remember. Super low THD/super high neg feedback ala the THD wars of the mid 60's through the 70's which resulted in very poor transient performance. Also very dry sounding, or just lifeless/boring sounding Not just Technics. Pretty well all the Asian mass produced ss gear. That's how my "purist" ears remember that period.

 

[Disco-Pete]

This is more subjectivist nonsense, I fear.

No need to fear, you have affirmation.

 

[wiseoldtech]

Technics- very clinical 2 dimensional sound. Lots of IMD😎

This is more subjectivist nonsense, I fear.

My Technics is late 80's, early 90's Japanese-made stuff.
A while back, I ran it through some testing at the shop to confirm specs against published figures.
And for what it's worth, Technics actually listed their specs conservatively, because distortions of any type were almost immeasurable on the shop's equipment.
Nevertheless, at home, I'm thoroughly pleased with the receiver, cassette deck, and both cd players that I own.
And damn reliable too.

 

[academia50]

A link from 1945 attached by the OP has derived in the THD from vintage Technics emplificers and other topics that have no relation to the title. If this is not Off Topic, and the OP is not troll, it seems too much ...😴

 

[academia50]

And the question mark is missing from the title of the thread, because THE SERIOUS ANSWER: NO, TONE CONTROLS ARE NOT NECESSARY IN WELL CONFIGURED SYSTEMS IN CONDITIONED ROOMS.

 

[Galu]

There's no need to shout.

My hearing's not that bad! 😀

 

[Worldie]

And the question mark is missing from the title of the thread, because THE SERIOUS ANSWER: NO, TONE CONTROLS ARE NOT NECESSARY IN WELL CONFIGURED SYSTEMS IN CONDITIONED ROOMS.

Not so. "Well configured systems" means using tone controls or something similar. "Conditioned rooms" is meaningless.

 

[Galu]

My Technics is late 80's...

The ST-K808 'preceiver' and SE-A808 power amplifier seen in the attachment were sold in the UK as the System 80s.

Something of a forgotten gem!

Purists could always shut the metal flap on the front of the tuner preamp. 😉

 

[adason]

My son waltzed off with my tone control devoid amplifier.

It has a switch to bypass the balance control - I hope that is permissible! 😉

yeah, but how do you bypass that switch? 🙂