High end surround processors vs Vacuum tube HT

I continue to witness a growing number of AGoners selling their high end surround processors. Personally, I have heard many of these in varying systems over the years (Krell, Classe, Theta and the like), and rarely have I experienced any "night and day" differences between them and a decent $1500 receiver followed instead by vacuum tube equipment. Let me clarify:

In my own system, I run the main left and right Preouts from the receiver to my vacuum tube 2 channel preamp and then on to vacuum tube monoblock amps for these main channels. I also run the other preouts off the receiver to vacuum tube amps for the center and surround channels. The main 2 channel preamp is set to unity gain and measured and marked with a little piece of tape intially during setup. Thus, when switching between CD and movie etc, I can easily relocate "unity gain", and the receivers Master Volume control again governs the entire volume level of the system in multichannel mode.

Curious if I am the only one doing this and attaining far more emotion and presence from my multi channel media than anything I have heard from even state of the art systems at AV dealers for many many thousands of dollars more. I am sure like anything there are compromises and drawbacks to my setup, but I am more interested in emotional sound quality rather than slam, the ultimate dynamics or convenience.

Any thoughts from others would be appreciated. This Vacuum tube thing has struck a chord with my heart!!!

R.