Tubeyist sounding Pre-amp?

Just find a tube unit from the early 1960s and put in some worn out tubes. Get as much distortion as you can. That will make it sound "tubey." Great, fat, bloated, lacking transparency like trying to read fine print through a layer of mud while wearing a welder's mask.

Otherwise, buy a modern neutral tube preamp and enjoy the quality of fine musical reproduction that well-designed tube equipment can deliver.

tubegroover -

Actually, I'm a tube lover.  I own a tube phono stage with a FET mc front end and fully tubed line stage preamp.   Herron VTPH-2 and Herron VTSP-3A (r03).  They are very wonderful units.  Vanishingly low distortion and coloration.  Not "tubey" sounding, not anything sounding.  Just transparent to the music. 

I do not like components that add coloration or distortion to the music.  They subtract from the musical presentation.  Your tube "warmth" or "body" as you describe is a distortion, a coloration and not true to the source. 

My original statements apply.  I built and owned Dynaco, and owned early Audio Research tube gear.  It was good in its day, mostly because almost all the solid state equipment in those days was so bad. 

There is little to choose between in the very high end as it relates to tube or solid state gear.  I chose the Herron equipment because I could not find anything better, could not even find an equal to it regardless of price.