Quadio EQ?

[par4ken]

My Sony TA-1150 amplifier (bought in 1972-12) has turnover frequency selectors for both the bass and treble tone controls, up until the late 1970s, I set the bass turnover at 250Hz [knob at 4] and the treble at 2.5kHz [knob at 10] + loudness on, I later decided I should leave the tone controls at flat (loudness still on).

My Pioneer VSX-D209 receiver disables the tone controls in certain modes.

I figure that some person or persons associated with the musical act signed off on the sound mix [mono/stereo/surround & the bass/midrange/treble balance] and I would listen to the mix flat (I no longer use the loudness function), if the sound quality is poor (muffled treble for example, that's the way the musical act wants it).

IMHO, analog magnetic tapes should only be EQ'd as part of the restoration process.


Kirk Bayne

Personally I don't care what the intent was, vintage recordings almost always sound better with a bit of added bass and treble. The flip side of that is that modern recordings which tend to have a crisper/harsher sound usually need a bit of treble roll off to sound their best.

 

[quicksrt]

Invaluable to you perhaps. But for the most part, cheap simple imprecise consumer grade tone controls in the hands of amateurs mess up sound more than help it. I wish I had a dime for every time I heard a crappy sounding system and the root problem was somebody applying smiley-face eq.

We're talking about people who know a little bit about sound here, rather than amateurs screwing thing up. And yeah a touch-up of EQ could really make those Maxell and TDK's appear to have more to their frequency range than even the advertisements claimed.

Flat transfers are simply flat transfers. They might need a lot of work or they might need nothing. It all depends. But if they need work, it is not simply a matter of adding some smiley face eq.

It can often be a very light touch of smile, or little to no change at all, or a radical boost somewhere, it really could just depend. You would have to be there to hear it, but since you nor I were not there, then we don't really know do we.

But I like having the choice, and the tone controls on my Sansui 7070 are often adjusted very slightly. My stereo listening really does sound nicer since I brought that old receiver out of storage where it had been wrapped in a plastic trash bag for almost 25 years. I was told at that other forum that it would need to be recapped and that it was for sure a ticking time bomb as it is. Anyway a lot of CDs sound really dull to me. The older DCC and MFSL golds as well as my hundreds of needle drops sound spectacular, but damn those run of the mill reissues sound so flat and dull in comparison. I know why those CDs sound so blah, but that's another thread ain't it.

 

[mandrix]

So what I get is that:
Remote controls are bad because the little buggers hide. No argument there.
Room correction is bad (I/we should have 11 or more identical speakers and be able to have ideal placement of same in a perfect room I guess. )
AVR's are a piece of crap. (well they could be better!)
The artist's intent is unimportant. (tune it how you like it, no problem for me)
We should all have vintage equipment. (had it, not going backwards)

Never understand why people rail so strongly against things.
Do things the way we want, and everyone is happy. Right?
I will continue to do things my way, and I expect everyone else will as well.
...and with that I bid adieu, and best wishes to everyone for the holiday season.

 

[kfbkfb]

Remote controls are bad because the little buggers hide. No argument there.
Room correction is bad (I/we should have 11 or more identical speakers and be able to have ideal placement of same in a perfect room I guess. )

I have several (simple) universal remotes, they basically do (TV, DTV stb, VHS) power on/off, channel change, VHS play/record (no programming), I keep my remotes in the same place all the time.

My new receiver has a room correction system, getting the room cleaned out and another home theater set up in it is a 2024 project, I'll probably try the room correction system but I'm not sure I'll use it all the time.

Strangely, considering my history with using tone controls, I now find the result of using tone controls distracting, the music sounds out of balance.

Anyway, back to enjoying surround sound (real and fake in my case).


Kirk Bayne

 

[barfle]

Well, Merry Christmas (or seasonal holiday of your choice), anyway.

I suspect we’ve all had our share of recordings that could use a bit of touchup, whether from poor recordings, poor room response, or personal preference.

Back when I was young (50 years or so ago), I spent a bit of time at a little audio company two blocks fron Disneyland called Altec Lansing. Among their products was the Model 729 Acousta-voicette, a stereo, 1/3 octave graphic equalizer. Ignoring the fact that its own SNR was about 70db, it allowed you to seriously mess with frequency response. It came with a record that had 1/3 octave filtered pink noise so you could flatten out room response, although that was usually so boring that only true geeks bothered, setting those 27 times 2 pots by ear.

It could be a useful tool (if you didn’t mind the hiss from 27 darlington transistor emitter followers), but it could also show how tone-deaf the owner was.

 

[ghalteman]

Just about ALL of my Quad to digital dubs of my reels sound very bass heavy compared to those from the CD-4' record dubs. I guess it's from the way either the Sony TC-788-4 or Akai GX-630D-SS were equalized in those days. I notice less bass in the Blu-rays, but only for that reason.

 

[mandrix]

I have several (simple) universal remotes, they basically do (TV, DTV stb, VHS) power on/off, channel change, VHS play/record (no programming), I keep my remotes in the same place all the time.

My new receiver has a room correction system, getting the room cleaned out and another home theater set up in it is a 2024 project, I'll probably try the room correction system but I'm not sure I'll use it all the time.

Strangely, considering my history with using tone controls, I now find the result of using tone controls distracting, the music sounds out of balance.

Anyway, back to enjoying surround sound (real and fake in my case).


Kirk Bayne

I think room correction capability is a good thing. Having 7.1.4 in this smallish room, I've found the Dirac Live pc app to be a great help and allows for adjustments before loading into the AVR. (the DL is built into the firmware so don't have to pay for license) .The built in AccuEQ is actually really good at setting the speaker distances. I did the measurements then ran the AVR setup with supplied "hockey puck" mic and the distances were spot on. As far as setting levels, crossovers, it was way off but I'm used to setting those anyway.
When I run the Dirac Live pc app I use a UMIK-1 mic with a calibration file loaded.
Anyway just my opinion.

 

[Tres Discrete]

I'm close to you in age and I still cut and when necessary split firewood, for hours at a time. But really, turning a knob is not hard and once done it doesn't often require a whole lot of resetting.

I hate fumbling around with a remote that more often than not is nowhere to be found! I hate flipping through menus and having to have the TV on just to see what I'm doing!

Right…I used to get up in the morning at half-past-ten at night, half an hour before I went to bed, Eat a lump of freezing cold poison, work 28 hours a day at mill, and pay the mill owner to let us work there. And when I went home our dad used to murder us in cold blood, each night, and dance about on our graves, singing hallelujah. Yah, you try a tell the young people of today that, and they won't believe you...but I STILL prefer to sit on my bum with a remote!!!

With apologies to Monty Python and a heartfelt Merry Xmas to y’all

 

[Sal1950]

I think room correction capability is a good thing.

Modern room correction software has been the biggest improvement in home music
reproduction in decades. The ability to semi-automatically correct for the huge irregularities
in bass frequency response caused by room modes, subwoofer integration and the rest
has been a God-Sent for the average enthusiast. When discussing SOTA music reproduction,
the digital sources and before the speaker gear are mostly solved technical problems capable incredible performance only dreamed about a couple decades ago. Only the speakers and their room interaction remain as the last big gap to a fully transparent reproduction.
Good DRC has taken us a huge step forward to that goal.
The Futures So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades.

 

[MidiMagic]

Possibly a wrong de-emphasis from a CD-4 record.