Tone controls,are they really necessary to use?

[CindyC]

My boyfriend possibly future husband (after a few more punches in the head to get the last kinks out of him) loves the treble cranked up when playing music and I like it flat especially when listening to jazz as it sounds pure and natural to me that way and he hates it! Are all you men this difficult and what gives?

[markw]

My boyfriend possibly future husband (after a few more punches in the head to get the last kinks out of him) loves the treble cranked up when playing music and I like it flat especially when listening to jazz as it sounds pure and natural to me that way and he hates it! Are all you men this difficult and what gives?

It's all a mattter of personal taste. Obviously, your also man likes his music shrill, grating and annoying.

[GMichael]

I leave mine flat. That's where it sounds best to me. But yeah, we are all difficult. It's our way.

Welcome to AR. We could use another lady's touch around here. Poor FA can't keep up with all us guys.

[JohnMichael]

My boyfriend possibly future husband (after a few more punches in the head to get the last kinks out of him) loves the treble cranked up when playing music and I like it flat especially when listening to jazz as it sounds pure and natural to me that way and he hates it! Are all you men this difficult and what gives?

Maybe too many blows to the head has reduced his high frequency hearing. LOL No seriously if he works around equipment that produces high or continuous levels of noise his upper frequency hearing may have been damaged. Factories, airports during takeoff, musicians who do not wear ear protection, jack hammer operators and construction are a few professions where hearing has been known to be damaged. Remember if he can not hear the high frequencies he may one day not be able to hear you. You may need to hold on to what ever you are using for the head punches.

[CindyC]

I leave mine flat. That's where it sounds best to me. But yeah, we are all difficult. It's our way.

Welcome to AR. We could use another lady's touch around here. Poor FA can't keep up with all us guys.

Thank you for having me

[Geoffcin]

Thank you for having me

But I warn you, be careful what you say to these guys, they are a bunch of wolves!

The simple fact is that women have better hearing than men. Not only are they born that way, but met tend to have jobs that put their ears into harms way. Add that to the fact that most men like things that go bang, and the average adult female has significantly better hearing, especially in the treble. Your sig other might be suffering fron this type of hearing loss. There's a test you and him can do to check this. Go to this thread;

How high can you hear?

And download the test tones. Burn them onto a CD and try them on your system.

My guess is that you'll hear higher than him. A lot of men have problems with tones over 15khz.

[likeitloud]

Welcome to AR, Hey watch the blows to the head, that hurts I have my
settings set on flat, however I did make some adjustments during speaker set-up
thru the receiver. Boosting the treble does affect the quality of the recording(IMO)
disrupting my favorite area(midrange). Compromise with him, let him mess with
the car player, and you set up the home one to your ears. Again, welcome and
keep us posted.

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[superpanavision70mm]

How old are the two of you? Maybe age has some factor because at certain ages people begin to lose the ability to hear certain frequencies.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

This sounds to me like high frequency loss. My business partner used to do the same thing in his car. When I told him to get his hearing checked, he found out that he had severe hearing loss above 8khz.

[JohnMichael]

If he does not have high frequency loss this may also be a case of what you have gotten use to hearing. A friend had a car stereo that was painfully bright and was disappointed that his home stereo sounded dull by comparison. He also thought my stereo was dull. We spent a lot of time listening to my stereo and talking about music. He began to turn down the treble in the car and learned to enjoy the music without the treble empahsis.

[Resident Loser]

...after a few more punches in the head to get the last kinks out of him...

...your need for his malleability and answer your question about the need for tone controls...

Yes, I believe tone controls should be available...not all program sources are created equal and we don't always listen to music at volume levels that generate sound-pressure levels that are reasonably flat in overall perceived response.

With regard to the former, the ability to judiciously boost or attenuate the overall sound to one's own liking is perfectly acceptable. With the latter, as volume levels drop, the ears ability to perceive the frequency extremes is compromised...loudness compensation pre-sets are rarely satisfactory for all listeners; tone controls allow for those listener-specific vagaries.

Saying that, however, I would concur with some of the other responses re: a potential high-frequency hearing loss...Most personal preference-based use of tone controls is done in small increments...going full tilt, say +10 @10kHz(a fairly typical boost extreme and turnover frequency for treble controls) could be indicative of hearing difficulties.

jimHJJ(...some simple auditory testing may be in order...)

[JohnMichael]

...your need for his malleability and answer your question about the need for tone controls...

Yes, I believe tone controls should be available...not all program sources are created equal and we don't always listen to music at volume levels that generate sound-pressure levels that are reasonably flat in overall perceived response.

With regard to the former, the ability to judiciously boost or attenuate the overall sound to one's own liking is perfectly acceptable. With the latter, as volume levels drop, the ears ability to percieve the frequency extremes is compromised...loudness compensation pre-sets are rarely satisfactory for all listeners; tone controls allow for those listener-specific vagaries.

Saying that, however, I would concur with some of the other responses re: a potential high-frequency hearing loss...Most personal preference-based use of tone controls is done in small increments...going full tilt, say +10 @10kHz(a fairly typical boost extreme and turnover frequency for treble controls) could be indicative of hearing difficulties.

jimHJJ(...some simple auditory testing may be in order...)

The Fletcher-Munson curves.

[Resident Loser]

The Fletcher-Munson curves.

...and Robinson-Dadson and ISO 226:2003 which now supercedes them all...

jimHJJ(...or so they say...)

[SlumpBuster]

This sounds to me like high frequency loss. My business partner used to do the same thing in his car. When I told him to get his hearing checked, he found out that he had severe hearing loss above 8khz.

Yeah, and for perspective severe loss above 8khz means that the world sounds like AM radio all the time. I had a good amount of hearing damage that was thankfully reversed. Now I'm good up to 19khz according to my most recent hearing test. But I have nothing compared to my wife. The woman has bat ears. Every thing from soft sounds to ultra high pitch, she is constantly asking me "Don't you hear that."

We should all safeguard our hearing and encourage new members to do the same. Anytime some kid new to the board wants to talk about his 500 watt pro amps and piezo horn tweeters, any answer/comment should include "Your killing your ears, get a db meter."

[GMichael]

My dad worked inside a powerplant for over 30 years. He can't hear crap now. Everything sounds muffled to him. I turn off my sub when he's over. It's all he can hear and it drowns out everything else on him. If you try to get his attention with a pssssst... He'll never hear you. Talk with a deep voice and he looks right away.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

...and Robinson-Dadson and ISO 226:2003 which now supercedes them all...

jimHJJ(...or so they say...)

Actually Jim ISO 226:2003 is a recent curve that even supercedes Robinson-Dadson. There work was published in 1956 as a re-determination to the Fletcher-Munson curve. In 2003 a new revised curve better know as the Equal Loudness contour curve ISO 226:2003 was published after scientist from several countries got together to take another look at this issue. It turns out that Robinson-Dadson work was the odd man out. The new standard is actually much more comparable to Fletcher-Munson curve than the ISO 226 Robinson-Dadson curve of 1956.

[kexodusc]

Hi CindyC,

I've noticed a lot of guys love the shape of their graphic eq's to look like a "V", that is the bass cranked up to max, and the corresponding need to crank the treble up so they can hear the symbals ring after a crash...
We call those guys the "boom and sizzle" crowd. I think it has to do with a lot of modern music's tendency to push the low bass and high treble extremes - not really sure why they like it - so as JohnMichael mentioned, you may have to teach him "how to listen".