T-Home has a point but start with premis that speakerrs are sensitive enough for your tubes or tube amp is powerfull enouhg enough to handle sppeakers.Have spoken with a buddy about this at length and he is of oppinon that digital should be clean and tube character should come in pre or amp.We both don't understand that certain catalogue companies have sold more Muisc Fidelity tube buffer to ad "tube sound" to mainly CD players before goiing to pre or integrated.It is not poart od design and means most of you old discs are to sshrill or aomnething in your system needs changing.But bottom line is how much do you want of tube sound (essentailly "good" higher order distortion as opposed to lower order distortion which is harsh and unpleasant)
Listen to gear at shops read reviews get budget in order etc and eiced how much tube you want.Tubes may be best at midrange (I use a tube intergrated with a pair of german semi horns).But you could 1) ad tube sound with CD player modded with tubes and probaly get least "warmth" 2) ad tube pre and get a combination many like because tubes change voltage well and add chromatics that tube s do but get highs with no roll off and good bass control 3) make tubes final stage with power amp or integrated where it will ad biggest signature to sound (both tube pre and amp or SS pre and tube amp).This will give greatest sound of yubes and maybe what your after.I have ha all combos and they all have pluses and minuses.Another curent especially for thos on a a budget is to get a hybrid integrated where input is tubes amd ouput is solid state from Unison or (visually) beautiful Pathos hybrid.Some have bought inexpensive Jolida $600 100 wat and been underhwelmed.but rember while NOS (new old stock from 50's-60's) is very expensive input tubes are cheaper and last longer.You can have fune in a pre or hybrid swapping oput tunes and get instead of 3000 hours of output tubes 5,000 or more (up to 10,000) of inpuit tubes and have fun "rube rolling" choosing european or USA tubes which can really change a set up's sound.My freind and i think that you should render unto Ceasar what you should and digital should at it's output be as clean as possible so we both think tube belong else where fgarther down the lione.How muich is your choice but a tube amp with give you the most tube sound.Not all hybrid integrateds sound tubey like the BAT (not cheap but great if you can use 150 watts and want clean sound).Or get pre or hey leave it out entirely if say all you play is digital and get one with a good op amp for volume and run into a high value tube amp like Rogue,VTL,Conrad Johnson (very warm at expense of being more nopisy than others , or budget champ Quicksilver VR4,or SOME of the Chinese amps (some suck)(BTW eve with as bit of hassle swapping wiores I have thought about putting as much as I can into CD .SACD and phono section and amp with myspeakers and just switch wires when going from CD to LP.No line stage that rember can only ad artifacts nmight take away,.One nagative of this is pore's can add dynamic drive that your source components dont have by them selves so it's a toss up but if I did it I'd probaly get a Sonic Frontiers tube pre or or pree (maybe SS maybe not again depending if amp is tube and how it sounds.
Or again get good tube integrated and you'll get tube sound aplenty.I like clarity but with my set up and speakers I give up some accuracy for the sound of my integrateds EL 34's (EL34 is midrange chanp,KT88 more money but beter bass and slam,6550 a good economy tube.I have had and sold more hifi gear than I can rember but the one piece I miss more thananay other is the Mesa Baron amp.Mesa is a guitar company and made one tube mp and one lower priced intergrated.Since they were used to basses and guitars they came stock with 6L6 tubes a popular musician tube.But for $500 you could get it modded to run the tubes I just mentioned.They were $K and $500 new with "tri-tube " mod and now can be found for $1500 to $2K.Even if it sat in my closet until I had a st up that couse it again wish I had gotten tri tube mod and kepot incloset.Probaly will buy another one sometime in my career.The companies that can ad tubes to your CD player to it's deluxe mod get a better CD player (whole 'nother post depending on your Cd and total budget) and have same company or other modifier work on your othter components like tube amp or tube integrated.
Chazzbo