Adding Tone Controls?

There is absolutely no valid reason not to use an equalizer, or a set of tone controls, IF you put it in the tape loop of your pre-amp. Judging by the effort you have already made to get quality sound, I think you would be disappointed if you just put it between your amp and pre-amp. It will affect the quality of the sound you have and be a PITA to use all of the time as you went from one type of redcording to another.

Another possible solution - get an inexpensive tubed DAC or CDP - then find tubes that will give you a very warm sound. That helps a lot and you can keep it cheap if you're careful.

But on the whole I would use an equalizer in the tape loop.

This problem is exactly the reason I recently bought a Luxman 509U integrated amp, it has by-passable tone controls, makes hard sounding recordings listenable. Wish more equipment makers would add tome controls to their gear.

I would suggest rather than use tone controls, do some research and make sure you use proper interconnects and speaker wires to tailor the sound you want. Some products are more forgiving than others.

Oh yeah, that's a smart way to go about it - not! Interconnects and speaker wires have very subtle effects if any at all. And they would always be in the signal path, thus "tailoring" the sound for all sources. Not to mention the hassle of swapping them in and out and the time and money spent purchasing them only to find out they didn't do what was needed.

And if you're buying interconnects and speaker wires that have multi-decibel effects upon certain portions (frequencies) of the signal, you're buying very poorly made products. EQ is the way to go, plain and simple...

-RW-