A little tube magic?

mwh777, if you go the other way you might have better result. Bypass through the tube preamp vs through the SS. I just had to work out the bass management system for both systems without plugging and unplugging. I used a C2500, MX150, Rogers PA-1 and 124/SME, same crap with the remote. Mac is easy to assign stuff.

It’s as transparent as a preamp with tone control, a power amp and source with cables and speakers can be. Oh, oh I forgot the phono stage or streamer with a transport. I say color me slightly.. :-)

I run Carys V12r / Six Pac or Macs 240-275s, at least 70 hours a week in the winter for 3 months, spring and fall I remove 4 valves at a time and re bias (Cary only). Mac I use only in the dead of winter or in the shop. It gets HOT where I live, I swap to SS Class Ds for 3-4 months through the summer in the front room (wife’s system).

I’m looking for a second V12R in red. :-) KT66 or 77 are just the 11th wonder of the world in that unit. 4-12 valves, you just have to bias it for the number of valves.. 6V6-KT99s.

Cost;

I picked up 8 6V6 Rubys for 75 dollars. They will last 5 years in that V12. Brand new in the box test as 8 matched new valves... 6550W black plate 190.00 for 6 I think..  They use them in Migs for god sakes.. :-) Russian Valves..

Regards

What's your budget to make a move?  It sounds like the unit you introduce will be doing double duty on music and television.  Do you watch television with just two channels now?  

I would think the advice above about looking at a tube preamp would be spot on--if you don't need to do home theatre/multi channel stuff. 

If you want big holographic soundstage and bloom, try the Vincent SA-T7 preamp.  It's superb.  Somewhere between Conrad Johnson and Audio Research, but that's painting with a wide and fat brush.  There's a used one for sale (Not my listing and no affiliation) here now: 

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisad395-vincent-sa-t7-tube-preamplifier-w-remote-manual-box-tube

Budget would be around 1,000-2,000 if I were to keep my current ss pre. If I’m replacing it then budget would be 3,000-4,000. Really would like to stick with McIntosh for the simplicity of operation for the wife and guest. Which leaves me feeling like the tape loop may be the way to go since I don’t really dig McIntosh tube preamps from my experience. I think I would be ok with a slight loss of transparency, slight. Not sure what to expect with the tape loop though. I do like that it would be a simple solution without disconnecting and reconnecting. 
I do watch television with just the two channels.  I’ve never really had much interest in surround sound. If I was building a new house I may incorporate it, but not very compatible currently with out a lot of Sheetrock work to run cables. I’m pretty sure I hate Sheetrock work more than I would like surround sound. 

I recently purchased a BorderPatrol SEi DAC. It really does a nice job of bringing some tubey/analogue sound to the table.

I have a similar system. A few notes. Look for an amp that has a lot of headroom for the tubes. Heat changes are more of an issue than simple run time - turning tubes on and off shorten life expectancy faster than leaving them on. Look for an amp that has individual biasing. Lots of designers try to sell single point biasing as a feature - but it usually means you need matched power tubes - so replacement cost gets multiplied by 4. I run the fronts and rears on tube amps and use SS for center and Atmos speakers. They do make amplifier selectors, but I have never found one I trusted. I have been looking into Mapletree Audio recently and they have a product that may simplify switching for you - the real question is whether the grounds are shared. I don’t have one. I do have a Foz and it works well for what it does - but I am working with tube amps already so I can’t say what level of bloom it could impart to your system. The affect of the soundstage is impressive, though done through signal manipulation, and is best reserved to fix room boundary issues when the only other option is getting a new house.  I currently have two sets of speaker wires at the fronts and the rears so I could swap between tube amps and av SS amps, but to be honest I don’t usually do it. Another way to look at this is to consider that both tubes and transistors get hot - one is replaceable and the other is not. Avoid exotic / expensive power tubes and focus on rolling the input tubes. I’ve gotten years out of tubes running them for 4 hours a day average. My OCD usually kicks in and I choose to replace them before they fail.