A little tube magic?

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. 

I just use my same setup for music and TV (and the Husker football games sound great: better than how the team performs).  I have an McIntosh MX110z and the TV is plugged into the Aux input, the disc player into the tape monitor, and the turntable plugged into the Phono input.  It gives me everything I need and sounds great; if I have to replace some tubes, so be it.

I just want to say, good luck, with the caveat: I have gotten clever, too clever for my own good a few times. Very proud of myself, until I wasn't. 

I currently have a C50 with a 452 McIntosh amp. I use the tape/processor loop with a Yaqin tube buffer, utilizing Psvane UK-6SN7 tubes. Wanted a way to warm up or smooth out the digital verse the great sound of our analog sources. This set-up works, and what is nice is the ability to either have the tubes or not with the push of a button on the preamp. I am always looking for a better tube buffer, but to date I have not found one that is both in budget and is the right size for my limited space. I also like the 6SN7 tubes over the 12AX7's, sounds better to my ears. Also many options for rolling.
 With your C46 you should have the same results, while not spending big money. Good luck and enjoy the music. 

Ralph,
Are you shipping your GaN amp?.....if so, what do the customers think?.....and how much is it? Any specs besides 100 watts?

@ricevs 
We are shipping limited production. We posted one customer's comments (which seem pretty typical) on the feedback section of our website. Right now they are priced at 5300/pair.


The amp makes 100 Watts into 8 Ohms and 200 into 4; to that end we are being conservative. It can drive a 4 Ohm load at 200 watts all day long without overheating. The amp has balanced and single-ended inputs. It uses a linear power supply rather than switching. The switching frequency is about 500KHz. Phase shift at 20KHz is less than 1 degree- about the same as our tube amps. The output impedance is about 10milliOhms. The distortion signature is very similar to our OTLs, with the lower ordered harmonics dominating and higher orders falling off with an exponential decay. This allows it a smooth presentation.