I think there’s some truth in this. When I did my big buffer-Darkvoice comparison I used an Atom and a SP200 for the buffer. I get less positive results when it feeds a Liquid Spark or an Asgard 3. Maybe it has something to do with amp topology. The Atom and SP200 are op-amp based. The A3 is class A/B. Although I admit I don’t know what the Spark is, though it sounds more like class A (I know it isn’t class A).
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Any EQ would work – and probably better than the Tube-03 EQ, because with the Tube-03 bass and treble controls… “bass down” is “low hz cutoff” and “treble down” is “treble dip but don’t touch anything above 10khz”.
I used to think this, to the point where you disregard tube buffers entirely in lieu of Tone controls (like the Schiit Loki Mini Equalizer), however changes to EQ is not the same as changes you get from tube sounds. The tubey-ness (which I can explain at best as “holographic/layered sound”) can’t be replicated using EQ. I don’t think using EQ on a tube amp will also get the same result if the effect doesn’t come through the amp to begin with
The idea of amp dependence for the tube buffer though is interesting, I didn’t think of it that way. Maybe there is life yet for my Chinese tube amps, especially now I’ve collected a lot more 12AU7 tubes. Just have to play around with some other amps I have lying around.
Oh that’s for sure. Tubes definitely don’t just do “EQ” (what would be the point, they’d just be… overpriced Schiit lokis?). I meant, when there are tubes in the chain, EQ-ing can help with width, depth, soundstage, etc.
Tube effects can be muted or enhanced with EQ (or inappropriate headphones, speakers, amps, etc). EQ can’t reproduce tubes.
I also associate “tubiness” with not only soundstage and imaging, but also added smoothness and overall clarity of the sound.
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Man I have been having a blast reading this thread! I may have to experiment with this.
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my tube pre-amp does not get that warm when running, however the tube hybrid amp does. the amp is a fosi, the pre-amp is a aiyima. they all made by the same company and just branded differently.
edit: i use the GE matched pair off of amazon for both, no distortion on pre-amp. amp distorts about 2 oclock, but i think thats the amp and not the tubes.
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I know I can’t touch the tubes much (…should not anyway), the tube-03 tube buffer itself stays cold.
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My little FX-Audio 03 just got delivered, this thread made this science experiment possible! I’m going to run it into my SP200, can’t wait!
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Hey, did you try to EQ finally? 
I now have a Schiit Loki next to it so I can EQ it up easily. But I haven’t used the tubes recently. Were you suggesting that adding EQ would have a synergistic effect with the tube preamp?
Honestly I don’t see how EQing is supposed have a significant impact on those things. But I will play around with it tomorrow.
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I just had “wrong” EQ settings and was like “meh”, and messing with the Tube-03 treble and bass knobs fixed everything.
I don’t know how tubes do that either but they do lol. I think you got the bassy GE tubes, for the classic “tube warmth”. Other than warmth, tubes are all about adding distortion, AFAIK, “even order harmonic distortion”, to “color” the sound. But it’s apparently too subtle with the GE tubes and the Tube-01. So maybe boosting some frequencies with the Loki will make this (desired) distortion more apparent – I just hope so: I got 6J1P-EV tubes, but messing with the EQ did that for me. Good luck!
Do chinese tube buffers worry about “even order” harmonics or do these just throw random distortion and hope it works? That’s another subject lol. I’m curious to “measure” my Tube-03 though – it does great things, I just don’t know how.
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This guy over on Reddit gave some useful descriptions of different tubes. I think I may to pick up those Voskhod tubes. Apparently the GE tubes are the most boring lol.
https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/hat41c/combining_a_tube_preamp_with_a_solidstate/
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So the EQ did nothing 
Yeah, I agree with what he said. Voskhod 6J1P-EV tubes just makes everything sound more alive… and “classy”.
The EQ may have had a small impact. The problem is I can’t EQ it that much before the FR will sound bad.
I wasn’t able find the Sylvania tubes in stock anywhere. Where did you buy those Voskhod tubes from?
i like my ge tubes. but i have a lot of warmth elsewhere. so they work for me really well. they are also fast tubes. they don’t slow the bass down any.
So I was screwing around with the bass and treble and wow, when you get them just right you can really make some bizarre fun happen lol! And by just right I mean floored for the most part, too fun
Huh, eBay. A seller on eBay Canada (I’m from Canada) and he’s not selling tubes anymore apparently.
(But there’s… millions of 6J1P-EVs still available apparently.)
So after two months of waiting I finally got some Voskhod 6J1P-EV tubes. At the time, there weren’t any good US sellers. So I bought them from a Russian seller.
Even after burning in, the tubes have pretty minimal impact on the sound. So that’s disappointing. I was hoping it would provide something more substantial than the GE tubes. Maybe my model preamp is the issue? Anyway I’ve got extra pairs to sell to you all. Message me if interested.
This is really weird. The difference is enormous with mine (tube-03 + Voskhods). Even with the volume at 2:00 
… is the tube-01 this bad? I don’t get it… If possible leave the tubes on for a while for burn-in (…not unattended because chi-fi lol), but yeah… after all that I’d say I’m sorry you don’t even hear a difference and consider buying a little dot mk2 or a darkvoice instead…
I’ll just record the output of my headphone out with and without my tube-03 soon (I got a recording interface) so you all can hear the difference… But heck, I found you can change the opamps in the tube-03 and I’m seriously considering buying v5i opamps for it…! (Yeah, more expensive than the tube-03 and the Voskhods combined, lol).
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