Fidelity to what? Or what are we tying to achieve with all our expensive gear?

[Barry]

My Quad 34 has 'bass lift' and 'tilt' controls, but I always prefer them both to be set flat (that's with Avalon NP2.0 speakers).

I did say "the Quad 44 (and later designs)". The Quad 34 came after the 44, being a simpler design and having less versatility. The Quad 34 did have an additional +/-3dB setting on the "Tilt" control. This additional +/-3dB setting was added to later versions of the Quad 44. Both preamps had the "Bass lift" and cut (or rather shelf) controls, and again the Quad 34 had an extra position of bass shelf.



Personally, I have never found the need to use the bass lift and cut control, whereas there are a very few recordings where a -/+1dB 'tilt' can be beneficial. One such example is the rather "thick-sounding" 'For the Roses' by Shirley Collins and The Albion Country Band.