Retirement integrated amp for a “fiscal conservative”

Thank you all for your thoughts and recommendations!

Now that the holidays and excitement of welcoming our 6th grandchild (a healthy baby boy) to the world on Dec 20 have happened, I can get back to my Music appreciation/enjoyment project!

I decided to start with baby steps (i.e. lowest cost….and no pun intended) before a step function investment. I took @mclinnguy advice and ordered the ”12AU7A RCA Cleartop (side getter),SPECIAL MATCHED PAIRS” from Brent Jesse. They recently arrived and I’ve only got a couple of hours play time on them so far.  I’ve not yet done the research on # of play hours I should expect for these tube to fully break in and provide their full audio characteristics (that is next on my audio To-Do list :-) ).  My initial impressions of the these RCA Clear Tops is consistent with what @audphile1 described as sounding rather thin with unremarkable bass. I’ll do the research and let them settle in before passing judgement on their ability to get the sound I’m looking for. 
@retiredaudioguy reading yours and others, who were kind enough to take time time to provide their thoughts, I definitely have Pass Labs on my radar if I end up needing to do a total integrated replacement. I had the Pass Labs INT-250 for sale on US Audiomart for < $8,000 on my watch list but didnt pull the trigger wanting to see how this tube rolling works. 
@bluethinker if I do end up going the total integrated replacement route, do you think the 40 watt LTA you suggested would be a good match for my 84 dB sensitive Joseph Audio Perspective speakers?

Eric, working for one company for over forty years is quite an accomplishment. I don't see this new generation staying with one company that long, not that they don't want to, the opportunity is just not there.

You have quite a few recommendations here, so I don't think your choice has been made any easier. I personally don't like integrates because of their limitations. For one thing the preamp and power amp share the same cabinet and that can obscure low level detail and or pick up hum. In addition, they don't provide a pathway for up grading either the preamp or power amp in most cases but there are some good ones out there where the mfg. has gone to great lengths to shield them two components from each other

@phd thank you for your observations (yes, Ive received some great and a variety of advice which is wha I hoped for with the vast diversity of audio experiences this membership represents)!

I do appreciate your recommendation of going the separates route, but a couple of aspects give me pause pursuing that route:

1. With separates providing even greater opportunities for future upgrade, that would make it harder for me to resist my goal of this being the last significant $$ upgrade to my system. 
2. As you mention, some companies have overcome the pre-amp/amp co-habitation issues and manufacture integrateds that provide A-rated sound quality. As my 68 year old tinnitus-ridden ears are far from being classified as “golden ears” I likey can’t tell the difference between a well implemented integrated design from separates. 
3. Based on #2, I suspect I’ll be able to achieve the best sound my ear/brain system, can resolve and enjoy, more cost effectively with a nice (new/used) integrated if my current tube rolling experiment doesnt pan out. 

Sorry to hear you have tinnitus. This is a reason to choose very carefully. Very trebly solid state units like Luxman are probably going to exacerbate your tinnitus. Happily I do not have tinnitus. But having discussed it with many folks that do, you want a very warm musical sound. Highly detailed components tend to exacerbate the problem. Tubes are a really good choice... and probably not Rogue. I'd look at Conrad Johnson, Audio Research. I'd go listen to an Audio Research I-50... it is very musical with amazing PRaT. 

Try to find an ASR Emitter 1 Basic, the Rolls Royce of integrateds. Solid state but actually is as liquid as tubes, with solid state bass and excellent highs. AND, it does both macrodynamics and microdynamics exceptionally well. Imaging is spectacular (almost matches my Antique Sound Lab Hurricanes in that respect, and that is saying a great deal!

Brand new, here in the US, they cost $13,000. A few thousand less in Europe. The Music Room has one for $3,800. If I didn’t have one, I’d buy it.