Why modern HiFi systems are boring

Without VU meters and tone controls, HiFi systems seem perhaps boring, but Paul gives us a different perspective.

[harrykressl]

I am 61 and always owned decent HiFi Systems. I have to admit that the systems nowadays are so much better in sound. Absolutely incomparable. That does not mean that the old system hadn’t a sex appeal that modern systems sometimes lack

[mr.george]

In my opinion, the 70's stereo war Receivers were the best looking audio equipment ever made.

[mpi]

I think manufacturers like Hi-Fi Rose are bringing back some very cool and interesting amp designs that still look modern. There are many other companies that believe in tone controls, knobs and buttons - McIntosh, Yamaha, Luxman to name just a few. As a longtime audiophile that has owned dozens of different brands of amplifiers, I prefer those with knobs and tone controls. Paul will try to tell us that we don’t need those, as they have it all dialled in for us - BS. Tone controls are super helpful in correcting all sorts of issues, be it with your room, speaker placement, poor recordings, etc.

[birgerolovsson]

"The recording industry is getting worse and worse" = The best/most true you've said for a long time.

[cdev]

I'm sorry Paul I hear ya! I'm 69 and have the 70's system of my dreams and it makes me so happy. Pioneer sx-950 Technics turntable and some good ole fashioned JBL's and a pair of Pioneer HPM-900's. All controls are flat and I have a decent set of cartridges and the sound is amazing. And the digital hi-res files I play back from ripping those records are outstanding to my ears. Yes If I visited your special listening room 1 I would be blown away. But I do not have 10's of thousands of dollars for it. Peace and Love! Christopher 🙂

[Jaml]

Now for the real reason, cost. It's cheaper to manufacture without VU meters and additional knobs and features which in turn means higher profits. And a flimsy plastic case is way cheaper than a metal case or even a wooden case. And on average i think speaker quality went down since the majority of the population buys the cheapest speakers on amazon that sound like garbage and would greatly benefit from tone controls.

[pupwizard]

I will take my restored vintage receivers (Marantz 2245, Sansui 9090, Sansui G8000 and Pioneer SX980) any day over the modern minimalist stuff made today. AESTHETICS matter. That is why McIntosh today still catches your eye every time. I am sure the PS Audio and Hegel units sound great. But my vintage gear sounds great and LOOKS great too. Beauty

[dondrewecki]

I partially agree: No stereo/mono switches on an amp? Sometimes that's necessary, if you're playing mono vinyl with stereo cartridges, and you want to cancel out the record noise. Or, if you want to cancel out stereo noise in FM broadcasts. Some of those bells and whistles are still necessary today.

[hobo]

I'm from that era as well, and I still insist on having tone controls on my gear. You can still find gear that has them, and some, like Vincent and Yamaha still offer loudness circuits as well.

[anonimushbosh]

With respect to Paul, the proper answer is… you can still buy those, both brand new from a bunch of mostly big name manufacturers & vintage refurbished with new components.

[geraldmcmullon]

1980 I upgraded to a Meridian 101 and Meridian M1 active speakers. The pre-amp selected between turntable, tuner and tape. No treble, no bass control, no loudness, no filters. Back then I was used to three tape inputs, aux, phono, tuner, then CD, 4 VCR, DVD and ever needing more switching so used a QED passive switch box. Now I think the 101b has too many control, using it for moving coil from my 1990 Linn Sondek LP12 serviced, partly upgraded in 2022. I have yet to hear a better system. As good, sure. Could live with them too, sure but really within one bar of music outright better I don't think so. Now if my 71 year old ears could pick up the frequencies I enjoyed 44 years ago maybe; but I am stuck with what I am left with. As long as when play a track or watching a movie and I can still say damn they sound good I am happy.

[tomday]

I'm afraid I'm old school with a receiver I bought in 1973 playing CD's through a bluray player and a DAC. My turntable and vinyl went to my son who used them to digitize the albums through software for replay on his bluetooth system. Over the years I hooked speakers to the system both purchased and of my own design. As my hearing degraded with age and abuse, I have used my "old fashioned" tone and loudness controls to compensate somewhat and mainly use headphones. I agree with Paul regarding the quality or lack of it in more recently recorded music. When limitations on the user's ability to play or possibly even want high fidelity based on their method of storage and playback the industry was happy to oblige. When I look at what I spent on a component system back in 1980 and adjust for inflation to today, I'm not in PS Audio range, but it still would buy a decent system.

[pablohmleyton]

I do miss the Loudness control nowadays to listen to music at low levels though.

[HammersmashdFace]

That's why I still have my 26-year-old Onkyo receiver. I want loudness and bass/treble settings and it can still reproduce them. In my experience with newer devices, even if I adjust the equalizer on the source, it is still “flattened” again.
And of course I have a profile with extra bass on my AV receiver.

[leowetzel]

My 50 year old ESS AMT-3 speakers and 50 year old Sansui sound awesome, however the 700-watt per channel modern power amplifier helps add headroom.

[AudioGuyBrian]

The letter writer is 100% correct. They charge top dollar for bargain bin gear with no features but a power button. And some pre-amps are just a volume knob, input selector and power button. I bet it just kills the manufacturers of modern gear to even put a LED above the power button. That is costing them another 10 cents of profit on their $20, 000 amp!

[Cowplunk]

There are two reasons tone controls are still needed IMO. Every room is different and every person’s hearing is different. A system like Dirac addresses both these issues. Of course you can also try switching components and adding tweaks until it all satisfies you. In the auto repair world we would call this more expensive route “loading the parts cannon”. It’s not surprising that people who sell equipment prefer this latter route.

[RatedCfm-czff]

In 1998 I ended up with a new Kenwood reciever, it did not have any knobs, other than the volume control.
Everything, bass, treble, mid was adjusted by the remote.
It was a home theater reciever, so it had dozens of listening modes, and different sounds to match your taste.
After a year, the lack of knobs for bass & treble began to drive me absolutely bonkers!!!
Every time I popped a different CD in, I'd usually have to tweak the bass, or mid a touch.
Other times, if it was turned up too loud, the reciever would shut off, then I'd have to reset everything back to where I had it before.
I ended up acquiring a Yamaha Natural sound receiver from the same era, and instantly fell in love.
Bass, treble, loudnes, volume knobs, all where I can see them, and
can quickly be adjusted, without fumbling around with a remote.
I gave that annoying Kenwood reciever away, I have four different Yamaha Natural sound recievers currently.
The loudness knob on the Yamaha differs from the loudness buttons on the 70's recievers, it is more or less a gain/mid/treble combination.
You have the ability to tailor the sound of any recording, from any era, to how your ear likes it to sound.

[cremersalex]

Back in my Pioneer days, I always needed 'Loudness', or it sounded boring.

[MrRocktuga]

I have to disagree a bit with Paul on this one.

All studios sounded different since the beginning of recorded music, and they still do today, which accounts for one of the reasons why we can easily have 2 great recorded and mixed/mastered albums, and one might seem to be lacking in bass (for example), while other does not.

There's not such thing as "making it sound like if you were in the studio", because that studio sound is (and it always was) a moving target.

That's where some level of tone controls are definitely a good thing, even if we do want to start with the most balanced system, and only make adjustments in recordings that really need it.

Fortunately, some streamers are coming with the ability of using PEQ, or bypass it, although they don't solve the problem of those who listen mostly to analogue sources, and want to keep the whole analogue chain.


There's no audio system in the world (no matter how much it costs) that's going to sound good with every successful recording made since 1970 (for instance).

IMHO, whenever a sound system prevents me from listening to music that I love due to the lack of any adjustment, I don't feel like it is doing its job as it should.

I do most of my listening without any sort of tone controls, but I sure want them to be available when I need them.

There's no sense in allowing the HiFi system to decide what music is listenable or unlistenable, if another system is able to sound good with the same recording.

I'm still amazed by how many HiFi / audiophile manufacturers didn't get this point by now.