Think I want a tube system?

CDs were a big part of the reason I got into tubes. I found almost all cds way to harsh and shrill sounding, This was sound I had never had with records.Then the chase began. How do I get rid of this awefull harsh sound ? I went with several CD players as they got better and each was a big help, but the sound was still too clincal with most SS amps, so that is when I discovered how great tubes sound with CDs. A few solid state amps do sound real good, but for the most part tubes will be better than solid state costing 4 or 5 times more.

On your amplifier question;what speakers are you driving?
A lot of people pair a tube pre amp with solid state power amps and find the combination to be very enjoyable;I was on of those people early on but did eventually move to both tube pre amp and power amps.

Look into a used Cayin 100 or 88. Great value, great sound. Check out the cayin site at cayinusa.

For an excellent tube set-up a Leben Integrated tube amp would be a good start, although there are other fine integrated tube amps. Along with a relatively easy to drive speaker system, such as Harbeth, Devore, Vaughn (direct-buy), Coincident Technologies (direct buy), and you would have a killer system. If you get a good cd or sacd/cd player, or even a universal player would help, as would a good turntable and cartridge, if you are interested in getting into vinyl.

Of course, everything depends on your budget, so in order to give you better direction, that information would be necessary.

I am firmly in the SS power, tube pre camp. I dont believe I have heard that onkyo model, but they built it forever and it gets a lot of good press. If your speakers need that kind of grunt, I think you would be dissappointed going to an integrated, and high power tube amps can chew up expensive tubes. So try a tube pre for sure, then the question becomes how much do you want to spend and does it need to have a phono stage or would you do that later and separate. Also some caution is advised in having a one box pre with an onboard MC phono stage, they can be noisy.

Also consider a tube cdp.

Most of the new vinyl these days is recorded digitally but there are still some artists and labels dedicated to true analogue recording. On the other hand there's a ton of ways to buy used vinyl. I used to sneer at thrift store and flea market vinyl but I learned that a lot of the records were in nicer shape than a lot of my own and have found lots of good vinyl for a buck or less. They key is dropping in on a day when the right collection has been donated. I have probably bought somewhere around 1300 used lps in the past few years and a lot of them wont make their way to my TT until I retire likely. Happy retirement!