Pairing with Mcintosh C2300 amp and speakers


Looking for suggestions on what agon members have experience with pairing this preamp or the c2200 with....

success and not so good pairing opinions!
shsu
I use the McIntosh MC402 and Magnepan 3.6's. My favorite system to date and i have had many. Sources are Ayre CD and Vinyl rigs
The C2300 is paired with the MC402 and SF Cremonas. I never tried the pre with anything else as I had the amp and speakers already, although I did have a Modwright 36.5 pre with the 402 and cremonas but the C2300 was more to my liking. No knocks on the Modwright pre, it's good too but in a different way.
i got the Harbeth SHL5 and Reference 3a Royal Virtuosos
I hear the SHL5 prefers tube amplifiers. Is it in general the consensus that british speakers do perform better with tube amplification?

Anybody else with experience pairing either of these preamps with something outside MC402?