Hey Mrtennis,
I agree, "stay classic and go vintage tubes" is great advice. In fact, I personally am currently running a pair of vintage CJ Premier 8A monobloc tube amps on my Magnepan 20Rs with beautiful results. But to muddy the waters, I also have a class- D Spectron Musician III SE MK II (with the Bybee filters and V-Caps) that I alternate with the CJ Premier 8As' with equally beguiling, albeit of a different hue, results. I wouldn't part with either. I even mix the two using a Bryston 10B active crossover with the CJ tubes on the top and the Spectron on the bottom. In both cases I have found that a tube preamp, (in my case a Supratek Syrah-although I have also experiemented with Modwright 9.0s, Ultraverve, Emotive Audios and many others), makes everything even better.
I agree, "stay classic and go vintage tubes" is great advice. In fact, I personally am currently running a pair of vintage CJ Premier 8A monobloc tube amps on my Magnepan 20Rs with beautiful results. But to muddy the waters, I also have a class- D Spectron Musician III SE MK II (with the Bybee filters and V-Caps) that I alternate with the CJ Premier 8As' with equally beguiling, albeit of a different hue, results. I wouldn't part with either. I even mix the two using a Bryston 10B active crossover with the CJ tubes on the top and the Spectron on the bottom. In both cases I have found that a tube preamp, (in my case a Supratek Syrah-although I have also experiemented with Modwright 9.0s, Ultraverve, Emotive Audios and many others), makes everything even better.