[usaman]

My oldest piece of Frank's gear is his T8.  I use the tape loop when I want to use my ADC 450 EQ but more importantly to me, I tweak the music with its bass and treble control.  Although, I dearly miss a loudness control, I find a bit more or less bass and treble make my music just right.
It's those tone controls which have had me holding back on upgrading my preamp because the newer ones have done away with them.
I'm seriously considering on buying the FET valve preamp but want to hear from those who believe as I do about having tone controls and then going to no tone controls.....I understand the straight wire concern but I still have reservations about only relying on the original recording but good and bad room Acoustics always make gun shy....what say you?

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Just buy a Schiit lokius tone control like I did.  It is 6 bands and it is transparent to the music.  I love mine.  Douk a chinese brand sells one as well that is supposed to be pretty good.  Schiit also has a budget model called the Loki which is about $150 less than the $300 Lokius.  These are defeat able if you do not want to use it.

https://www.schiit.com/products/lokius

https://doukaudio.com/products/douk-audio-t7-7-band-equalizer-balanced-xlr-rca-preamp-for-home-amplifier

Also, the new Audirvana music player has a parametric equalizer that works well and is defeat able.

[FullRangeMan]

Preamps with tone controls are mid-fi devices.
No one Hi-End pre-amp use it, why they already have a linear response.
You need speakers that already have a correct response to your personal taste, especially in the bass.

[heiba]

Qoute: ‘Preamps with tone controls are mid-fi devices.’

All? Not true.

[AllanS]

Just buy a Schiit lokius tone control …

+1.  I get the attraction of basic tone and loudness controls.  The Lokius is a few more knobs to turn but it really does provide an easy way to shape the sound to your liking. Schiit actually refers to it and the Loki Mini as tone controls.
I use mine primarily to compensate for hearing loss.

[SteveFord]

Preamps with tone controls are mid-fi devices.

My AVA tube preamp has tone controls, I wouldn't describe it as mid-fi.

[listenermark]

The disdain for tone controls is weird to me. 

[cementhead]

I have the Lokius and love it. Like Listenermark, I do not get the negativity toward an EQ. It's just a great tool to tailer the Varying sound quality of your source. 

[toocool4]

Tone controls done well are fine. Some people like to tweak the sound they get out of their system which is fine, at the end of the day they want to enjoy it the way they want and why not.

I personally don’t have tone controls as my room and gear are sorted out the way I like it. Good recordings sound amazing,  bad recording sounds bad and no amount of eq will make them sound good.

usaman do it your way, it works for you don't let anyone else poo poo you decision.

[AllanS]

The Cheap Audioman covered removal of tone controls in a recent video.  As I recall, the basic summary is industry reduced costs and promoted their removal as a feature.  Imagine that.

Note: The comments, though supportive of his take on tone control removal, ripped his choice of sponsors, an AI music generator he used to create some theme music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bYFPzzks48

Whether “surgical software eq” (Schiit Lokius description) or 2 band tone control, every system and listener are different.  I’ll go as far as saying recreating the “artist’s intent” is a mythical beast outside of the studio so you might as well tune it to your liking. 
Hearing aids have been a total revelation.  I was absolutely floored how much of life I’d been missing as my hearing imperceptibly degraded over the decades.

[Early B.]

Today, you've got digital EQ options bundled in streamers, along with filters and other features that replace the old tone controls and provide 10x more flexibility. So yeah, go ahead and buy the FET valve preamp and use the modern versions of tone controls to shape the sound to your liking. If you prefer a more tactile alternative, grab a Schiit Lokius.   

[usaman]

While I mostly use tone tweaks when spinning records, Ive found that I have quite a few albums that sound atrocious without a tone adjustment. 
Reading Mithats article on pairing the DVA A2D with the DVA DAC preamp, (which I own), he stated that it "rivals a majority of fully analog preamps. It's really hard to convince people of this until they hear it for themselves."
So now I'm wondering if I should save the cash and not buy the FET valve preamp, sell my AVA T8 preamp and buy the A2D and run it into my DVA DAC preamp.
Maybe ill try that and jf i can be satisfied with its absence, then ill sell the T8.

[NIGHTFALL1970]

Usaman,
I highly recommend that you get an AVA A2D and run vinyl through it! Purists will Pooh Pooh it because you’re converting analog to digital and then back into analog. It sounds fantastic! My vinyl sounds better than most of my CDs. I highly recommend that you try it. Then post your thoughts on here.

[FullRangeMan]

Sorry hurt yours fellings guys.
I mentioned this basic detail why AVA pre-amps no more use Tone Control, they have evolved. As a ruled of thumb I think if you need tone controls there is something wrong in your system, usually speakers in the bass or mid-bass (under 300hz).
As always IMO.