If it were me... I would stay away from the Beheringer and receiver; very poor sound quality overall.
Do not stress over tubes/SS amp; you can get great results with either, but in your case you cannot afford a quality tube amp with enough power to drive the speakers very well. You might be able to snag a tube amp for that price, but you also might be asking for reliability, tube biasing and repair problems. So, go solid state and be happy. Work with inexpensive used cables, i.e. interconnects, to tune the sound.
If the repair of the Adcom is not too costly, it would be a fine amp. Don't bother modding it; the result is a crap shoot, and you'll never get your money out of it. Put the money that would have gone to modding into some cabling, and you will have as much benefit without the downside. Same with preamp; not worth modding.
And, or you should move to a new integrated DAC with preamp (volume control) function. This will give you worlds better sound at not much more cost. A far superior solution to the (assumed) older CD player you're using. Make sure the CD player has a digital coaxial (S/PDIF) output. Then you're in business for that wonderful upgrade! If the DAC has additional inputs you can use the iPod with it, too. You will be amazed at what has been waiting for you in terms of upgrade to the sound.
And that's just the beginning!
Make sure you have window treatments, i.e. vertical blinds, so that the glass does not reflect the waves as much, or else it may sound poor. You may even wish to reorient the room to have the speakers on another wall.
Have fun!
Do not stress over tubes/SS amp; you can get great results with either, but in your case you cannot afford a quality tube amp with enough power to drive the speakers very well. You might be able to snag a tube amp for that price, but you also might be asking for reliability, tube biasing and repair problems. So, go solid state and be happy. Work with inexpensive used cables, i.e. interconnects, to tune the sound.
If the repair of the Adcom is not too costly, it would be a fine amp. Don't bother modding it; the result is a crap shoot, and you'll never get your money out of it. Put the money that would have gone to modding into some cabling, and you will have as much benefit without the downside. Same with preamp; not worth modding.
And, or you should move to a new integrated DAC with preamp (volume control) function. This will give you worlds better sound at not much more cost. A far superior solution to the (assumed) older CD player you're using. Make sure the CD player has a digital coaxial (S/PDIF) output. Then you're in business for that wonderful upgrade! If the DAC has additional inputs you can use the iPod with it, too. You will be amazed at what has been waiting for you in terms of upgrade to the sound.
And that's just the beginning!
Make sure you have window treatments, i.e. vertical blinds, so that the glass does not reflect the waves as much, or else it may sound poor. You may even wish to reorient the room to have the speakers on another wall.
Have fun!