Interesting...have you considered that your "modest" but newer gear might not be suited to your high quality taste for vintage sound? Alternatively it may be either the euphonic tube soudn or the way the tube output transformer reacts with your speaker load (EQ's the presentation to give an emphasis at 50 Hz and at 1 Khz, according to your speaker impedance plot).
Your speakers are excellent but they clearly do not suit your taste if they don't sound lifelike with your existing setup, IMHO. Try the tube setup for a few days with a variety of source material and see if you eventually find it tiring with the emphasis at 1 Khz. If you end up always preferring the old mac tubes then either your room is too dead or the speakers don't suit you. Just two cents....no offense intended.
Your speakers are excellent but they clearly do not suit your taste if they don't sound lifelike with your existing setup, IMHO. Try the tube setup for a few days with a variety of source material and see if you eventually find it tiring with the emphasis at 1 Khz. If you end up always preferring the old mac tubes then either your room is too dead or the speakers don't suit you. Just two cents....no offense intended.