Solid state to tube

Why?

I tried tubes and went back to SS

The OP could end up doing the same thing, who knows?

Each and everyone of us will have our own specific experiences. For me it was pretty simple, tubes were more natural sounding and authentic to my ears.
 

For some listeners they won’t be. I applaud the OP for giving tubes a try. We’ll see what happens. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Charles

I have tube and solid state amps and a tube preamp. My amps are quicksilver and they're wonderful.

I really enjoy the full tube sound, but the Pass XA25 coupled with my 6sn7 preamp is pretty magical. I don't find tubes to be a big hassle.

To me, after decades with high current solid state amplification, appreciated slam… which tends to be much greater in solid state. The midrange tends to be a tad leaner and the bass transients really fast… this gives the characteristic slap of fast bass. But, I have never heard this in live performance… amplified or acoustical. High quality tubed amplification tends to have a more fully fleshed out midrange and upper bass and the bass is finely nuanced… but the transient rise is slower… which is actually what I hear in live venues.

We either drink the same water or hang out at the same live un-amplified music venues.😊. This has been my observation for many years listening to acoustic double bass and cello. All acoustic instruments in actuality when heard in a natural environment.

Charles

Difficult to go past ARC if it's in your budget. Otherwise Belles, Dehavilland, Cary or Aesthetix come in cheaper. I have an Aesthetix Calypso pre into an EAR 534 amp a combination which works well with my ML electrostatics. The sound is tube but not as rolled off as say early Conrad Johnson gear.

I concurr SS has more slam. And it is a better fit to the kind of music I have always loved best. Started with hardrock, prog, then even some metal prog and now diving fully into electronic music, specially french. Not dance music, home listening electronic music, sounds so impressive it makes it hard to go back in times. And I am 68 but always been on the fringe in rock music. I barely ever listen to my couple hundred classical records anymore. However, the major draw back in tubes for me, it is yet one more way to tinker with the sound. And I already have so many ways to do that, cables, speaker placement, isolation, diffusers, absorbers, etc... it is fun to play with all that but it can become too time consuming taking you away from the main goal, listening to music. Plus tubes degrade in sound overtime so it even confuses things more. Keeping it simple is a luxury in audio and I try to lean that way. But my house of stereo system was in no way shape or form an easy undertaking.  Just reaping the fruits of it now and tubes set me back in that respect. To each his own.