Getting into Tube Equipment

Me, either. I had the Big Dynaco Tube Monoblocks. If nothing else they’re fast, super dynamic, liquid and totally awesome sounding. After I had them modded by BWS Consulting they drove my naked Quad 57s swimmingly. A friend of mine had the reissued Dynaco Stereo 70 about 25 years ago or whatever which was also awesome, driving my Quads which by then he owned. 😎  footnote on history: I wound up buying a nice coffee table that used to belong to the dude that owned Dynaco, I bought it from his son at a yard sale. Coincidence?

Sometimes I can’t believe all the BS people write when someone ask for advice. The only valid conclusion I can come up with is that people mean well but lack experience. Thomas, of course you can build your dream system within your budget and even much less. I own very, very expensive gear in addition to collector items and lots of $ doesn’t necessarily buy good sound and synergy. You can build an unbelievable system with budget items. I highly recommend purchasing some of the older “bargain” items from the late 50’s, to the 90’s. Tons of great gear that can STILL outperform many of today’s items. And don’t discount stuff based on company reputation; many Dynaco tube amps were better sounding than companies like Macintosh or Fisher tube amps. I have about 20 tube amps in my home costing $20,000 down to my cheapest $600 tube amp and even my cheapest amp, when set up correctly will sound totally amazing and a sound to die for. My biggest advice, erase your idea of the speakers you want, and start new. listen and get the most transparent and neutral sounding speaker. Build from there. Keep it simple, don’t waste money, buy smart, research forums of old school audiophiles and stay away from people that have just jumped into this hobby in the last 10yrs. They mean well but do not have the knowledge nor experience as someone who has been around for 30 or 40 yrs.  I do own state of the art equipment but I still am quite amazed and attracted at the detail, resolution and realistic clarity of sound when I listen to my vintage stuff from the 50’s to 80’s. Get a preamp with tone controls and do not listen to the BS out there. One of my best sounding vintage preamps has tone controls, the Marantz 7 serial # 14,xxx and it sounds so super transparent and wonderful. It recently outperformed by buddy’s “New Production” $7000 BAT preamp. The Marantz is expensive but there are tons of other preamps to buy that are cheap and fabulous sounding. The secret to buying great stuff - research forums. 

Don’t laugh, but I use the cheapest tube buffer out there - the FX Audio Tube-01 - as a volume control for my woofer amp in my bi-amped system.

$30 for this tube buffer/preamp/volume control, and $650 for the Benz Micro Wood SL LOMC cartridge (bought here on Audiogon) and $650 for the Benz PP-1 MC preamp. Just putting the numbers out there to show how some systems can have mismatched components, price-wise, but have synergy and sound great.
I use a Conn organ amp as the amp for my ribbon tweeters and planar midrange/uppers. And a Nikko Alpha II for some Tannoy woofers.

>>>>> BTW Jerry Garcia always insisted on Mcintosh gear back in the day. <<<<<
Yes... they started with tubed Mac's.  When they changed to solid state the sound changed not for the better.  A friend I worked with (in an audio store) who was a Dead fan,  told me that when they switched to solid state what he heard began to give him a headache.

I still have a Dynamo ST70 paired with a PAS 3x From the 70's.  Over the years have has several upgrades, cap replacements, different tubes, etc.  Bypassed tone controls on the PAS, upgraded resistors, etc.  Still sounds the same.  Compared to my more modern kit, the Dynaco stuff is a stroll down memory lane, but not as satisfying in terms of detail, resolution, and dynamics.  Soundstage is good, but the distortion is so high it obscures much of what is available from the source material (the distortion is lovely, second order harmonics adding a certain "lushness" to the sound).

What I have found is that modern SS electronics, properly matched to speakers (the 86dB Dentons will want more power, probably 100 wpm + if you want to listen at high volumes), room acoustics, and how loud you want to listen, will deliver adequate power to get the most out of your speakers.  Choice of cartridge (we are assuming vinyl playback here), cartridge loading, and choice of interconnect cable between your turntable and phono pre (capacitance) can function as tone controls.  Try running your cartridge as unloaded as possible for more detail and air;  increasing the load will change the resonant peak frequency and amplitude in addition to changing the amount of detail retrieval (you will need to experiment because often as the very high frequencies drop in amplitude, it can accentuate the presence of high-mid to high frequencies in the audible bandwidth, resulting in a more brittle sound, a counter-intuitive result).  Eventually, you will settle on a loading scheme that will get you the results you want.

Spend your money on a good turntable, cartridge, and phono-pre.  I am an avowed audio cheapskate, so I am currently using a new Technics SL1200 GR (removable head shell allows me to easily swap carts, RCA outs let me change interconnects, super easy to adjust).  Run that through any competently manufactured modern SS amplification system and you will likely find the sound that you are seeking.  My old Dynaco stuff stays in the closet.

FULL DISCLOSURE:  I am currently using an Odyssey Audio Candela preamp that has a tube gain stage.