am/fm tube tuners

Tuners are the one audio component where it is hard to say that transistors don't beat out tubes. For a start, a circuit called a "phase locked loop" far outperforms other demodulation schemes, and, although it was invented long ago, could not be realized in hardware until integrated circuits became available. Also, analog tuners involve a lot of critically tuned inductors, and the heat of tubes is bad news for them.

I suppose you could make a tuner where the RF stages were transistors and the audio stages were tubes. I doubt that such an animal actually exists.

And, if you do get a tube tuner make sure the tubes are good and that you can source replacements easy and they do not cost too much money. I've been warned that many of the tubes in old tuners might be hard to find and expensive.

What if I go with just an FM tuner? Does that open up the flood gates?

Eldarford, you forgot the Magnum dynalab MD 108 tuner. It uses 2 12AX7 tubes for output stage.

AM radio is for talk, and ball games. In fifty years I never had AM in my audio system, and never missed it.

The only time that AM radio had anything to do with serious audio was back in the 50s, when WQXR, AM and FM, in NY, broadcast experimental stereo, with one channel on each radio. I set up a couple of little table radios, and was impressed.