I can say to you all that if you want the best possible sound minimalism is
in and equalisers are a no no.

My system has no tone controls.  The volume controls are home made from 24
way switches utilising resistors.  They are passive IE no electronic
amplification involved.

I have stripped out all capacitors in the signal line and replaced with
solid links.  My class A power amplifier has only 3 stages and produces
just 15 watts.

When I first started modifying HIFI equipment in ernest one of the first
things I did was to take out the tone controls on my NAD amp of the time.
The result was stunning.  Those girls in ABBA weren't singing through their
noses any more.

In classical terms what you get for all these mods (and others) is the
following...

Ambience:  Very low level information like intakes of breath from flute
players, odd clicks from violin players and hall reverberation.

Imagery:  Solo violinists and singers fixed rock solid in space between
your speakers.  On a recent recording of Palestrina I've been able to pin
point individual singers in the choir.

Bass:  Yes there is bass on classical recordings and it's very enjoyable
when heard in context.  Where would Haydn's 103 'Drum Roll' be without it?

Slam:  When the orchestra plays a sudden tutti that's what you get, not a
rounded off effect.  This can send shivers down your spine believe me.

Absolute Clarity:  Very low distortion particularly on large orchestras
that tax the system and voices.

Once you hear these things you will want to burn your graphic equalisers.
Trust me.

That was all to Don's point.

One question to John:  shouldn't correct choice of studio and correct
micing techniques eliminate the need for these horrible devices? I'm
pretty sure that companies like Meridian don't use them.

Bob Draper
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