How Do I Start Playing With the Big Boys and Girls

If you want to keep your sonic's pure as you say,forget the tubes,that is not what they are about. The tube sound that you will get is not pure in any way shape or form. Don't get me wrong,tubes can sound very good but if you want a clear and pure sound as you say then you will need to go with a passive volume control. I would get a good ss amp to keep things tight on the bottom end so their size stays big in sound for bookshelf's as you say and let the passive keep things pure. Some how this and a few other sites can get people thinking that if you just get some tubes you will be in hifi heaven,that is not the case at all.

Zaikesman, I was not trying to have Jcbach belive anything. In his post he stated his goals for his system and I gave him my advice on how to reach those goals. He stated that he did not care about hihg volume levels and wanted his system to sound sonicly pure, (I thought people bought tubes to get some of that tube sound?) I like tubes and I like the tube sound but he did not ask how to get that tube sound,he said (sonicly pure)and I gave him the best answer I could to reach his goals. For you to try to make him think that he can reach those goals by just getting tube gear that has no tube sound (why would someone want tube gear with no tube sound anyway) is bad advice on your part. I have no problem with anyone that wants to add what tubes can do for their system, sounds like you may have a problem with what a passive can do for a system though. If you and Eldragon think he can get a more pure sound with tubes than he can with a good passive,then more power to ya, I would never give anyone that kind of advice when their goal was sonicly pure.