Any High End Tube Preamps with *gasp tone controls?


After dropping in a vintage Scott 222C into my system while my amp was out for repair I'm really missing the tone controls now that my amplifier is back. It seems sacrilegious but I just can't get the bass where I want it without a bit of boost plus I'm sure my hearing is changing as I get older so why not be flexible... even if it results in me being thrown out of the audiophile club.

dhcod

The Octave HP 700 SE preamp is as good as it gets. I was going to get one, but the waiting time was too long at the time, and bought the Accuphase solid state instead. 

I use a DBX Driverack 360.  It has graphic and parametric eq’s, delays for main and subs, harmonic synthesizer for deep bass and on and on. It’s been the only thing I’ve found to seamlessly incorporate my subs. 
I have 2 Krell FV 600 monoblocks feeding a couple of Wilson Maxx II’s and two JL Fathom 113’s. The 360 works really well with these. 

Find and examine an APT preamp from the late 70s. Designed by Thom Holman (the TH in THX) it not only has tone controls, but adjustable turnover frequencies, phase switches, A>B / B>A and a A-B to A+B fader that is an education in imaging and soundstage all by itself. Not to mention one of the best, most tunable MM phono stages ever built, with a proper subsonic filter. I have kept mine, recently had a Level 3 upgrade and rebuild done. It is a fabulous piece, one few current preamps can even approach in SQ a certainly not in flexibility.

After all of the postings, if you are still interested in a High-End tube preamp with tone controls, you should take a look at the AIR-TIGHT ATC-7.  I talked to the Jack Miura (the current owner and son of the founder Atsushi Miura) at AXPONA about why he added "Tone Controls" to the ATC-7, and he said that they are still receiving a lot of requests for them.  Here is a link to their product summary on the ATC-7 where they describe their Presence and Bass Control functions, and you can see the curves at the bottom for how much adjustment they provide.  To keep the performance high, the ATC-7 does not use variable gain or attenuation, but each click of the control knobs changes the signal path through separate discrete components.  It is an expensive piece at $34,800 for US list price, but if you want a top tier tube preamp with tone controls, this is one of the few best performance options that I know.

http://www.airtight-anm.com/_src/10816/ATC-7カタログ_E_1205.pdf?v=1686128074592