That is a tough one. I have been on the same path. I travel a lot, and started with a Model 12, Gallo A'Divas for speakers, and a Grant Fidelity tube buffer to process the digital audio after the DAC. Each year it has changed and grown, to my current travel system consisting of Quad 12L Actives. I use a DAC with preamp built in, and its fantastic. This is not a tube setup though, so you might not like it as much. You could try something like this with a balanced tube preamp maybe.
Hope this helps some,
Mot
Hope this helps some,
Mot