How exactly does treble control work?

[Florian]

Well i pass my time with the laptop. I play some DiabloII and when i listen to music i use my Sony Reference headphones. I am going to a Jazz club tonight tough but first i need a haircut. I went shopping yesterday and bought the "Pillars of Might from Ken Follett" and will read it while listening to some life tunes. Good for a reference ;-)

[GMichael]

Well i pass my time with the laptop. I play some DiabloII and when i listen to music i use my Sony Reference headphones. I am going to a Jazz club tonight tough but first i need a haircut. I went shopping yesterday and bought the "Pillars of Might from Ken Follett" and will read it while listening to some life tunes. Good for a reference ;-)

I Jazz club huh? Haven't been out to one in years. Enjoy yourself and have a safe trip.

[Florian]

I Jazz club huh? Haven't been out to one in years. Enjoy yourself and have a safe trip.

Thanks! First i have to grade these papers and then i will leave. I am pretty close to it on my home system, i just need a tick more body and downward dynamic range and a few hundret watts more.

--Flo

[Resident Loser]

...I'm a day late and a dollar short once again...but hoooo-boy, I can't resist...first we have der grand poo-bah-know-it-all, threadjacking a simple question re: the workings of certain tone controls into a diatribe against their use or inclusion and then there's this:

Hi,

Let me deal with the salt and pepper issue first. I am a trained chef and have worked in Michelin star kitchens and no there are no salt and pepper shakers on the tables.
If you need to enhance superbly created food with salt,pepper or tomato kechup you are in the wrong restaurant.

...which I will deal with presently...but first...

Tone controls are rarely, if ever, used(at least by those who know better) to take up the slack in the room/loudspeaker interface...Equalizers are much better suited to the task...they, of course, should be used judiciously and only after all mechanical means have been exhausted...

There is absolutely no reason(other than "purist" conceits) that tone controls should not be used to augment "lesser" program material. There are far too many variables in the recording process for anyone, anywhere to be that certain of the artist/engineers/producers intent. Unless one knows precisely what loudspeakers/et cetera were used and can replicate the environment in which they were used, it's a cr@pshoot, an educated guess at best.

I own vinyl, some of which requires a certain amount of hi-cut, some a bit of low boost and some of which could use a soupcon(yes, we have no cedilla) of both...there are many recordings that were engineered to sound good on AM car radios...others, particularly 60s Brit-pop, that have entirely too much top-end and/or no bottom to speak of when played back on decent hi-fi set-ups...Then of course, there are pressings that pre-date RIAA EQ standardization...

One could try to make an argument for recordings of historical note...this is what they sounded like so yada, yada, yada...My response is: you should play your wax cylinders on an Edison talking machine and your single-sided laquers on a console Victrola...otherwise, I want the option of salt, pepper AND ketchup(or catsup, if you prefer)...

...meanwhile back at the ranch...I rarely use salt. There is far too much of it in the food we eat, most of which occurs naturally...It can be hard for some to kick the habit and requires education of the palate to do so...Pepper? When dining out, I carry a small mill with me, filled with Tellicherry...never using the old, stale stuff provided...I always taste before using any S&P...If Jacques Pepin himself were to serve me Potatoes Lyonnaise with a five-star entree, chances are I'd probably use some pepper(I happen to like the pungent flavor it adds) and hey!, it's my dime...If he served them with scrambled eggs, I'd be lookin' for the ketchup...after all, they're only home-fries with a pedigree...

Soooo, while one shouldn't habitually knee-jerk salt on everything shoved into the pie-hole, neither should they have the bass and treble cranked to "10" because it sounds "cool" or whatever...however, the ability to use all things in moderation, as required, can enhance the respective experience.

jimHJJ(...nothing is "perfect" for you until you make it so...)