I've never experienced what you describe in any of the tube equipment I ever used.
Perhaps the volume control needs a bath in contact cleaner.
If cut the signal strength anywhere, between preamp and amp, and I personally would want remote control of that and easy removal of it.
Loudness Compensation. Old tube preamps and receivers had Fletcher Munson Loudness Compensation circuits, whereby frequencies were progressively adjusted for equalization at lower volumes.
Have your friend look for this feature and enable/disable it, perhaps it is involved in the differences heard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour
Perhaps the volume control needs a bath in contact cleaner.
If cut the signal strength anywhere, between preamp and amp, and I personally would want remote control of that and easy removal of it.
Loudness Compensation. Old tube preamps and receivers had Fletcher Munson Loudness Compensation circuits, whereby frequencies were progressively adjusted for equalization at lower volumes.
Have your friend look for this feature and enable/disable it, perhaps it is involved in the differences heard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour