Need help picking my first tube amp

I don’t think I am going to be of much help. (No experience with JBL nor those Mc units.)

But how are you doing the active crossover (Active-XO) for the bi-amping?

The new MiniDSP Flex would allow one to do the active-XO as L/R in and L-hi/L-low (etc) as it has 4 outputs.

That would keep most of the low freq (bass) power from needing to be amped up in the tweeter/horn side.

http://www.thebestamp.com/Tube_Pre-Amps/Classic_100_Series/QA-001-Mk3.php

This manufacturer has a tube preamp with headphone amp for a little over $700. I have his next model up from this one, which has a tube rectifier, it sounds great with my solid state amp.

"Always been tube curious, i hear so much about them that i have finally decided to try them in a cheap way.  I have always been into music, amps, speakers, just never tried tubes."

I guess that's kind of sort of the way it started for me almost 30 years ago. Then tubes turned into something akin to a bad habit.  Good luck on your quest.

@audiomike33, I can relate to your philosophy. Start with something relatively inexpensive,and move up,or move on.  That’s pretty much how I started my tube based preamp journey. I started with a low priced tube buffer. Lived with it for a while,and decided it was something I wanted to pursue.  I made multiple upgrades until I landed where I am now.  I get it. Other ideas are just as valid. Remember,this is a hobby. Enjoy the journey.

That company in Canada looks really interesting there amps, im looking into those.

Yep start off cheap and see if i like the tube hype and then move up the chain.