mhamel
500+ Head-Fier
Yes, it does...Some other notes..Much deeper bass..clear but powerful and that fatiguing high is no longer there. The highs are detailed without be rolled off. Voices are awesome. Soundstage is wide and more important deep positionally.
I have to comment though on what I perceive as "negative thinking" (not by you Coil..just using the same reply..lol)
Its one thing to say one is just as pleased with cheap tubes, its another to make the claim that people pay premium prices because there is an expectation that the tube is x times better sounding than y. Nothing in audio works that way.
It is very true that these tubes were never designed for use in audio they nonetheless were discovered to be quite musical due to inherent build characteristics. what often drives the price is not only the sound but scarcity of the product. So the price differential is not linear. A $10 driver grade tube may sound fine, but like any audiophile hobby, someone may be willing to pay 10x that amount to get a scarcer tube that that sounds only 5% better. No one expects it to sound 10x better.
So for those unwilling to spend that, there are the $10 tubes, but don't make the statement that it is good enough for all. It is good enough for you and that's all you can speak to, For many, the Aune is a cheap toy. They spend more on the USB cable than we spend on the AUNE.
Having been through dozens of tubes in another family - I know unequivocally that each tube is unique and that uniqueness coupled with its availability drive the price and what the market will bear.
It's a general perception in audio (and many other things) that if it costs much more it must be much better - whether or not it's actually the case or not (sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't). I'm quite familiar with what drives the costs. The concept of perceived value based on cost is not a new one. You can perceive it as negative thinking all you'd like, but that's not the case.
I am also fully aware that many people (including myself) are willing to spend money for a small percentage of improvement. At the same time, if I find something great-sounding - be it tubes, gear, headphones, etc - at a low cost, I will not disregard it based on that. Before the 6DJ8 became so popular, it was also a tube that was dirt cheap in comparison to what it is now. I have tubes that range from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars and gear that ranges from cheap DIY to several thousand dollars, and they all have strengths and weaknesses. I've been neck-deep in this hobby (obsession?) for over 30 years. For the record, however, you will not find me among the ultra-expensive-cable crowd, especially digital cables such as USB.
What I am saying is that it is not absolutely necessary to spend large amounts of money for good or even great sound. Regardless of the question of tubes, the T1 itself is an prime example of that. I also said that there's nothing wrong with either approach, so please take the entire post into context.