I've narrowed it down...

I agree completely with unsound, as far as picking a tube
Amp? Once you find the speaker that
You like, find the impedance chart for that
Speaker and look specifically at phase angles.
The dips or capacitive angles are what give tube
Amps a hard time

Speaker then amp or amp then speaker,'either' method works out . In the end they both have to match, chicken or the egg.I based my system on a move to a SET amplifier and it worked out fabulously, you just have to have a well thought out plan.
Regards,

Unsound, what you say is normally correct, but if a person wishes to go the tube route and has incompatible speakers for tubes shouldn't fellow members here tell the potential tube buyer that information? Then he can go find the speakers that he likes that are synergistic with tubes; and by-the-way, many people know for example that they prefer tubes to SS after hearing tubes, but might not understand that their current speakers are not a match made in heaven, so, the reverse of your normally correct theory is reversed. As the old saying goes, " more than one way to skin a cat."

I knew that I wanted SET 300B sound, loved the Cary house sound, bought the amp and went out and found the right speakers to match up with them, not more difficult to do than the other way around.

I think that a tube upgrade would certainly increase the quality of the sound I currently have, the question now is would my existing speakers cause damage to an integrated tube amp? When you say hard on a tube amp what does that mean? Will i need to replace 5000 hour tubes in 20 hours or after 4500 hours?

Once I have the integrated I want/can afford, I will consider speaker replacement provided I wont do damage to the integrated tube amp driving my existing speakers.

Phase angles? Dips? Capacitive angles? What is this you speak of?

and... what is a reasonable amount of power to consider? is 20w/ch enough are tube w/ch different than ss w/ch?