So where should the tubes be?

21 tubes in my reference system

Snap.

Please don't look past Rogue Audio's Ares (Magnum) tube phono preamp.

My phono preamps are all tubed, I own three...tavish, ear 834, and pro-ject tube box ds2.
Also, my border patrol dac has a tube rectifier in the power supply. My opinion is solid state amp, preferably pure class A, and a tubed phono preamp if your into vinyl. Otherwise, a tubed preamp. Pair all this with something along the lines of a wharfedale, harbeth, spendor, or tannoy speaker. To me, this combo works magic.

@tomic601   

Three Easy….he doesn’t know a FET is solid state

Even his beloved Herron phono stage has a FET-based MC gain stage.  It's a great phono no doubt but probably the least tubey one I've ever heard.  Amazingly the Herron still sounds like music even when playing MC carts!

few have tuners these days, but tube tuners are wonderful if you give them a strong enough signal.

good tube equipment is noise free, many accept a bit of noise, I encourage fixing or changing to have noise free tube equipment.

tube phono eq, like tube tuners, are wonderful.

my old 2 track stereo tape player’s heads relied on tape eq in the tube preamp. typically tube receivers, thus tube eq and tube amp. same warm involving non-fatiguing sound.

Now, 4 track Tape Deck includes internal SS tape eq, sends line level to tube amp.

any other line level source, into/thru a tube preamp (any preamp), is really a line switcher, and volume pot, which is why you want a tube amp for line level sources to hear tube sound for all sources. the tone controls, filters, ’loudness’ are all tube based of course.

try and find efficient speakers you love the sound of, thus keeping power requirements lower, thus less: heat; weight; cost; and more flexibility for placement. that makes it much easier to try tubes now, someday, many more choices in moderate power levels.

buy thee a simple tube tester, gives you answers, confidence in your tubes when/if problems occur