I'm not as savvy as others here about tubes, but also have tube pre and amp and also had trouble swallowing a whole system upgrade cost-wise. The option that worked well for me was to identify which tubes had the highest impact on sound on my equipment, upgraded those first, then the next, and so on.
Search here in the forum who are the good, knowledgeable vendors. Talk to them.
Search the member system pages seeking the same equipment you have and ask them what has worked for them.
As Truman said, don't go cheap. It doesn't mean buying the most expensive tubes, though.
Search here in the forum who are the good, knowledgeable vendors. Talk to them.
Search the member system pages seeking the same equipment you have and ask them what has worked for them.
As Truman said, don't go cheap. It doesn't mean buying the most expensive tubes, though.