Moving to separates

You don't necessarily need separates.

For tubes, you could get, say, a self biasing Primaluna integrated. It now comes with a mm phono board option ($160). Or a Cayin.

Kora Titan, tube mono-block amps (100 wpc). Go direct from source to amps with (Electronic Visionary Systems) Ultimate Attenuators.

What's your budget ?

You might try Musical Fidelity. Notwithstanding negative reactions from some who believe Stereophile has prostituted itself to them or that they "upgrade" their line too often, they actually make stuff that sounds pretty good. While frequent upgrades may hurt resale values if you buy new, you can get used or "close-out" equipment at reasonable prices. Try searching on it here and you'll find all sorts of things.

Thanks so much for your responses thus far. You folks have given me some good points to study.

As for budget, since this is my first set of kit, I was thinking along the lines of $1200-1600, but wasn't really sure what was reasonable

Re: speakers, I don't really know yet. Gallo's Ref IIIs and Mag 1.6s sound great on paper, but I live in an area where Def Tech is considered super exotic, with Boston Acoustics and Polk considered very high line. Unfortunately, not too many good places to really try anything out.

Also, I've never bought anything used in my life...Have your experiences with gear been satisfactory? I find it a little difficult to trust someone who I don't know in dealings that might ramp to a fairly significant expenditure--especially this first time! ;)

Thanks again for further recomendations...and understanding.