New tubes or new preamp?

There's more to a preamp than just the tubes. For me, the preamp is the most important piece in the system. (Providing you don't mess up matching your other components.) Get the LS-27. Its a big upgrade.

Brrgrr,

After reading your 2nd post, I don't know if you will get the results you want by getting a new preamp. It looks like you want something to deal with your 3.7's not having a "sweet" type of sound. Getting an LS27 most likely won't help. If anything, its a more transparent preamp and will further enhance what you don't like about your speakers.

Given that, I think you have 2 choices. The first choice is to buy equipment in an effort to cover up what you don't like about your speakers. Its a very tempting option, but almost never works. You'll just end up spending a lot of money. The 2nd choice is recognize that you may have bought a pair of speakers that are not for you. If thats the case, deal with the issue directly and get a different pair of speakers. For me, personally, that would be the way to go. Deal with the problem and be done with it.