Conrad Johnson vs. McIntosh Tube Gear

I understand Cary may have the characteristics you seek. I have not herd Cary equipment but have people describe it as lush and smooth in a good way; kinda like cj of old. I have been researching Cary a bit as I am looking at purchasing a 300SEI for a system for my cottage. Good Luck in your search.

Chuck

Those amps are supposed to be very good. I owned V4's,
although I am sure they are different sounding than the
Triodes. The V4's were definitely on the warmer side. I
guess all I am thinking here is, have you tried a different
preamp. I am sure the Quickie line pre is good for the
money, but can easily be improved upon. Maybe try a Cary
or the Mc 2200. How about a used premier 16LS. I really
liked my Mk.1 version of that pre.

It is mainly a matter of taste. I am not sure any of us can really tell you what to do.

Is there one brand whose current gear's house sound is considered the most warm?

Are you running CD's or vinyl. With 96db speakers any noise or excess gain in the pre and power is going to come out, expecially with CD as the source.

I think that the cj prem 16 is one of the true great pre amps. better in most ways compared to the Mac C2200 which has poor bass drive and slightly lean upper mids and lower treble. However if you mate the prem16 with a cj power amp, you might have too much gain in the system and cj power amps can be a little noisy with 96db speakers.

Mac amps on the other hand are very quiet and you could afford either the MC275 or the MC2101.

OTOH, Quicksliver don't really have a reputation of being analytical thou.