I don't know how I missed this topic earlier but, in my case, I seek tone control not due to deficiencies in recorded material or compnents but deficiencies in my own hearing. I have moderate tinnitus of the high pitched ringing type. It is aggravated by certain higher frequencies, volume and perhaps other characteristics of the music which I do not understand. Renee Fleming's "Amazing Grace" hurts while Jessye Norman's does not. Almost every song on a Roberta Flack album hurts when played at normal volume. I like string/piano quartets/quintets but I now search out cello performances.
I first noticed this problem when auditioning speakers after many years without any serious system. Of the limited number of speakers auditioned, Devore, Daedalus and Linn speakers were much kinder to my defective ears than others.
I have wondered if an equalizer of some type might help. I see on Audiocircle and Audiogon that some people use Metric Halo equipment (usually ULN-8 or LIO-8) but I do not know if these are equalizers. Parametric equalizers are quite expensive and, I think, quite complicated. A simple, clean device that would allow attenuation of offendig frequencies would be welcome as would an option of adjusting several frequencies to get the most pleasing sound at low listening levels.
I know I will be altering accurate reproduction of the music, but inaccurate reproduction would be better for me than a painful unpleasant experience. Thank you for bringing up this topic.
My System:
Modwright KWA 150SE, Modwright LS100, Bolder Cable modified Eastern Electric DAC, Bryston BDP-1 digital player, Furman IT Reference 20i power conditioner and Daedalus Audio DA-RMa speakers with All-Poly crossovers. I do plan on upgrading the DA-RMa's to v.2 sometime this year.
