It may be to your advantage to buy an inexpensive or used pre amp to start with and experiment with tube rolling. From what I’ve read some modern amps aren’t as differentiated by what might be considered the typical “tube” sound - tube amps sounding more SS and SS amps described as “tubey”. Apparently there’s more overlap than there used to be, but I’ll need to listen to a lot more amps of both kinds before I could possibly form a first hand opinion.
This year I got my first tube amp and tube pre to replace a 20yo SS integrated. When playing around with setups I noticed a more profound difference when changing between the tubed pre and the integrated’s pre out with either power section than when changing between power sections with either pre. The kicker is I’m using a $400 Schiit Saga+ with a $50 NOS tube. Of course I don’t think one would work for your setup because it has no gain and you probably need some with the phono stage. I’m just trying to give an example of a tubed pre making a bigger impact than might be expected.
This year I got my first tube amp and tube pre to replace a 20yo SS integrated. When playing around with setups I noticed a more profound difference when changing between the tubed pre and the integrated’s pre out with either power section than when changing between power sections with either pre. The kicker is I’m using a $400 Schiit Saga+ with a $50 NOS tube. Of course I don’t think one would work for your setup because it has no gain and you probably need some with the phono stage. I’m just trying to give an example of a tubed pre making a bigger impact than might be expected.