Starting My Journey

[Edward Huggins]

The well regarded Pioneer A400 does have dual-concentric volume controls to provide balance. It's also more of a "straight wire" amp, as there is no tone control circuitry insertion loss...but each to his own.

[Radio Wrangler]

It's like a restaurant with no condiments on the table. Their famous chef has seasoned everything perfectly. Why should they allow you to spoil it? If you disagree with the taste, go to a different restaurant.

In an ideal world, you shouldn't need tone controls, everything from the recording studio to your room should be right.

In the real world, things are not exactly right and people are allowed to have their own preferences. Some tone control circuits were a bit nasty as well. This was cured with bypass switches so that if you didn't need them, you didn't have to worry about impairments from them when set to neutral. A lot of people kept the knobs pointed due North anyway. It was a small step to just delete the things. It made the amplifiers look 'purer' anyway, and that meant a higher price

If your hifi equipment has any pretentions, you're now expected to tailor the sound by keeping buying different bits of equipment in a compass-less search for the holy grail. Guidance is available from specialist magazines and websites, but overall, it seems random, mixed with the flavour-of-the-month principle, to the atheist reader.

I rather like the 'Tilt' control Quad put in their 44 preamp onwards....

David

[dseymo1]

While I have no objection to well-designed tone controls, I do believe that they should be 'set and forget' to balance out system / room deficiencies. IMHO, the 'old ears' argument doesn't hold water: my hearing isn't what it was by any means, but I hear everything with the same ears. When I attend a concert, I don't expect tone controls, so when I hear the same piece reproduced, why would I want to hear it differently?

[bikerhifinut]

I'm seriously considering for my next preamp project, putting in a switchable baxandall tone control circuit.
sod the Audiophile credibility, there are the odd occasions when I could really use a bit of adjustment to "tiddle" things up a bit.
But mostly as RW says, my amps with tone controls usually spent most of their lives "Due North".
yeah the Tilt control and in early rogers solid state amps there was a "Slope" control which was basically a gentle bit of treble cut, but it had its uses.

A.

[Android]

Originally Posted by Edward Huggins

A nice set up - but you say in Post #53 concerning the Kenwood amp that "the one channel does not work". Does this mean you are playing all your LPs and CDs just through one channel of a stereo amp? This can't be a satisfactory situation for you at all.

Hi Edward. I really did not make that very clear. There are two sets of speaker outputs which you can switch between. The A output doesn't work at all but the B output works well both left and right.

Thanks for asking the question.

[Android]

Regarding Tone Controls, my Kenwood has them. It also has a Direct Source switch. Instinctively, I want to choose my own treble and bass settings but there is no doubt that the amp sounds best when choosing Direct Source, no matter what I do with the Tone Controls, although I find losing the Balance Control can sometimes be irritating.

The really funny thing is that my system, presumably the amp, sounds better after half an hour when it's warmed up. I didn't think that would happen on a transistor amp, but I wouldn't know a diode from a housebrick.

[D_S_J_R]

I remember the Pioneer A400 as 'sounding' absolutely dire when used with price-compatible sources and speakers, but rather good with top flight sources and larger speakers - it's a power amp with a volume control on the front basically..

One thing I should add if it hasn't been said already (and I apologise for skimming previous posts here...), is that vintage kit may need serious money spending on it to bring it back to a good performance. I can give chapter and verse on some old goodies regarding this and there are other once great products that cannot be repaired now - some of these are now collectors items and fetching silly money at present.

[bikerhifinut]

Originally Posted by Android

Hi Edward. I really did not make that very clear. There are two sets of speaker outputs which you can switch between. The A output doesn't work at all but the B output works well both left and right.

Thanks for asking the question.

That sounds like its just the switch or a simple wiring fault. Forgive my ignorance here, but could the speaker outputs be individually fused?
Someone here will know.

A.

[Android]

Many thanks, A. It could be something like that but I'd rather let an expert sort it out.

Anyone know of who I could service my amp for me, please? I'm in Sutton Coldfield so someone around here would be good but I could always send it away, if needed.

[AC/HL]

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