For example, when a kettle drum is hit, a lot of higher harmonics are produced along with the deep bass. Additionally, drums lost an important aspect of their sound. At the low end, for me anyway, the maxed out bass was waaaaayyy too much totally dominating everything and obscuring much of the music. However, they become the undisputed lead actors with the tone controls maxed and totally alter the music.
These high pitched percussive sounds are meant to be obvious but supporting actors to the vocals and instruments in the music. Just one example: a WorldBeat style CD with lots of shakers, rattles, bells and such was playing. However, (you saw that coming from a mile away, huh?) the highs and the lows do totally overpower the mids resulting in a very unbalanced sound. I tried out your maximum tone control setting method with one of my setups and it wasn't as bad as I expected! I see what you're saying about it seeming more dramatic.
