Marantz 5220 User Manual download pdf (Page 20)

Stereo

Scene

TONE

CONTROLS,

PLAIN

AND

FANCY

ONCE

again a number

high

quality preamplifiers

being

of-

fered

without

tone

controls. The

philo-

sophy

the

manufacturers

involved

is,

this time,

both

practical

and purist.

"You

wouldn't want

the

simplistic

bass

and treble knobs

we'd have

to use

to keep

the

design

and cost

of the

product

under

control," they

suggest.

"Instead,

buy

our basic,

unadorned

preamplifier

that

contains nothing

that

will foul

up the

signal. Then,

if you

still

feel

you

want

tone

controls,

add a

quality

equalizer for

the

desired flexi-

bility." And,

of course,

as often

not

an appropriate

equalizer

already

the

drawing

board

of the manufac-

turer.

Bass

and Treble

Controls. I

can

find

no fault

with

the

above

argument,

but as

these

products fall

into

hands

from

time

to time, I

realize

that I

sorely miss

the

old bass

and treble

knobs. They

helped

provide

frame

reference

a world

where

equali-

zation

recordings

going in

every

direction

once. An investigative

twitch

of the

bass

control has

become

almost

routine;

sometimes

there's

additional

octave

or so of usable low

frequencies

hiding

at the

bottom

the

spectrum.

often,

after a min-

ute

or two

listening

I'll

want to trim

the

high

frequencies

some

way,

even

run

the treble

control up full

get a better idea

the noise

levels

the recording

the

distortion

charac-

teristics

of a particular

phono

car-

tridge. For

these

purposes,

tone

con-

trols

are

cheap and

easy. Further-

more,

sometimes they

are

capable

bringing

about

a genuine

sonic im-

provement

recording.

am mind-

ful

the

purist's

admonition

against

tampering

with the

sound

of the

origi-

nal,

but the fact

that the

vast major-

ity

commercial recordings

come

pre-

tampered.

you

listen

only to your

own

recordings

miked in

a perfect rep-

lication

of a Venetian

cathedral you

By Ralph Hodges

can afford to

set pretty lofty

standards.

However,

those

of us who

buy regu-

larly from

the major

labels

need

all the

help

we can get.

Some

of the hostility

that

simple

tone

controls

arouse is

understanda-

ble. The

technically minded

note

that,

since most

controls

operate within

one

of the

preamplifier's

feedback

paths, they

affect the

distortion

the

device. The

enthusiast who

worships

at the

altar

high

fidelity

considers

them

blatant

form

of cheating.

Often

the

average

listener

has found

them

useless

in many

situations

and

so has

ignored

them.

This last

symptomatic

of a

misunderstanding

what

tone

controls

are

likely

good

for,

and

what

they

are not.

Occasionally, tone

controls

are rec-

ommended

for matching

a speaker

system's response

the

acoustic

conditions

the listening

room.

have my

doubts

about this. If the

speakers have

been

placed

with

reasonable

care, a simple

shelving

the midrange

and treble response

match

the

bass

output

should be all

that is required.

The

controls

on the

speakers should

able to

ac-

complish this,

and

better

than

most tone

controls. For more

persis-

tent

problems

(including

a poor

speaker to

begin with),

a tone

con-

trol's

action is

usually too

gross

too

unspecific

to make

a good

correction.

I have

always felt that

a treble

con-

trol

should be able

to ameliorate

high- frequency

distortion problems

that

can develop

from

several

sources,

but I've never

been

able to

put

this

theory

to work.

By the time I've

turned

down the

treble

enough to have

some

effect on the

distortion, all traces

musical

high frequencies

have

disap-

peared. In

short,

the music

sounds

harsh

because it is

seriously distorted,

wouldn't look

to tone

controls for

satisfactory remedy.

Bass boost is

often useful

and

often

not. Many recordings

lack

bass

be-

cause the lows

have

been

sharply

rolled

off somewhere in production.

The

typical

bass

control

cannot

begin

complement the

steep

attenuation

slope

used. Even if

the

slope

not

steep, the

bass

control

likely

begin acting

at too high

a frequency,

generating

obnoxious midbass

hump

the response.

Furthermore,

with

disc recordings,

the low

frequency

noise levels

that

are

corn -

mon

will have

you playing

tag

with

acoustic feedback

soon

as you start

advancing

the

bass knob

much

beyond its midpoint.

Nevertheless,

moderate

amount

of bass

boost can

really

bring

certain

recordings

to life.

Bass

cut, on the

other hand, is

rarely

wanted

or tolerated

except with pro-

gram

material

having

restricted

fre-

quency response

-an

unaccom-

panied male voice,

for

example.

The

opposite is

true

of the treble

control. Turned

down, it may

capa-

ble

of taming

many

of the

over

-bright

recordings

(the British

call

them

"chromium

plated

") that

are always

cropping

up.

Turned

up, the

treble

control generally

inundates

you with

noise

-a cure

worse than the

disease.

Matching

the Music.

In my

experi-

ence, tone

controls

are most

useful for

"correcting"

sins

recording

equali-

zation

that have

been

committed

similar circuits. How

useful they

are

every

circumstance is

another ques-

tion.

Shown

Fig. 1 is

the

spectral

balance typical

of a commercial

sym-

phonic

recording

during

a loud

orch-

estral

passage.

Steady percussion

has

raised

the

upper midrange

levels

somewhat,

and the recording

the

bright

side, but the

overall

shape

the

curve is representative.

Figure

shows the

same kind

of data for

a typi-

cal

pop

recording.

(Continued

page

26.)

T,30

31.5

Í'

100

3 5 IK

3.15K IOK

20K

Fig. I. Dynamic

spectrum of a

classical recording,

measured

on a real -time

aualyzeì'.

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