Tube Rolling Woes

Ghosthouse nailed it. Audiophiles love to talk about expectation bias. Which is largely fake, by the way. Hardly anyone ever talks about recency bias, which seems to be hard-wired into our brains. You made a change, its not perfect, you assume all the imperfections are due to the change. It is equally likely to have had imperfections there all along, only you had a combination of components and setup that had kept you in the dark, so to speak. The new component in this case is not creating them but merely revealing them. What ghosthouse said is correct. 

That's what I think. Give it time. Tube rolling is not for fine tuning magic, not patching over shortcomings. 

First to everyone: THANK YOU for the great advice! Some have asked about what the rest of the system is:

Freya+
PS Audio Stellar S300 Power Amp
ifi NEO iDSD DAC
Denon Pro DN-500BD MKII DVD
APC H20 Power Conditioner
Bluejeans Cables throughout
Triangle BR03 speakers (waiting for Tekton Impact Monitors on order)

I completely get the risk of eBay. As usual, the cheap way doesn't work. 

Ghost: All great feedback. I'll try the patience thing - I'm going to put the OEM tubs back in and use them for a few weeks, leaving the pre on 24/7 and see how it goes. I listened to an Upscale Audio YouTube video and he was emphatic about all tubes - new or old need a minimum of 200 hrs. before evaluation is meaningful. I'll mess around with the speaker placement and see if that helps. I've played with the toe-in and it helped a bit. More work needs to be done there. 

OldHvyMec: Always good advice. So far, I did a lot of research, spent then listened... So I'm listening to you all now and appreciate the feedback. I'll let the OEM tubes settle in for a few hundred hours and see where I stand at that point. If the voicing issue is still there, Checking in with Brent, McShane, and Upscale and see what the options are. 

Miller: I've been lurking a bit and have always appreciated your comments. Thanks for affirming what others have said on this one. There's no doubt that my little system has all manner of flaws, and the Freya has likely uncovered some of them. With 2 kids in college, this is the budget I'm dealing with. It's a good reminder that tubes aren't effective tone controls.  As an aside, I have a pair of powered Tannoy nearfield studio monitors that I use in a small room system. While they are revealing, there is something in the upper midrange that goes right through me. So I purchased a Schiit Loki EQ (a very very poor man's Cello Audio Pallette) and learned that an EQ won't fix a speaker voicing that you hate...

Thanks All!

Are you experiencing similar issues (top end is bright, and the mids and bass are very thin) in the passive and/or buffer modes as you are in tube mode?

The voicing that was going right through you is most likely room treatment.. Un kind or bloated upper MIDS, mercy they can wear you out..
Not to mention blistering LOWER highs.  MC has a point too. 70 hours is pretty low hours for anything to get RIGHT.. Little room treatment, maybe change the placement a bit.. Settling, you getting use to it a bit..

Spend no more and collect some good data.. Seems like a good plan to me.. You'll get it.. Man oh man kids in collage. I just had one go BACK for the second time. God bless his learning mind.. Hope he fattens' his wallet at the same time along with a brain blessing.. LOL a Twofer..

Regards

Of the 8 tubes I've purchased - claimed as tested matched quads (1) or pairs (2) - all but 2 have been either prohibitively noisy, or just didn't pass a clean signal. From my (admittedly small) sample, there has been no quality differences between the well-respected companies selling NOS tubes vs. people selling used stuff on eBay.

Always request noise testing when purchasing NOS tubes. It's an extra step in the dealer's tube testing, but worth it. Brent charges $10 for this service. Andy tests every tube for noise and microphonics, so does Upscale.
Once your Freya is broken in with stock tubes, you'll have a better idea what sonic signature you're looking for from the many brands and tube types.