Tube Amp for Totem Hawks

My AVA Fet Valve Ultra 550 performs extremely well with my different but similarly spec'ed speakers (mine are 87 dB; dips to 6 ohms), though they do not have metal tweeter. However, the amp provides such an extremely smooth top end without sacrificing extension I suspect it would do very well with your speakers. Though it contains several tubes it is not your typical "tube" amp, but a hybrid. Powerful (well over 250 w/ch 8 ohms), sweet, musical, extended, fast, and reliable with tremendous service support. Plus, 30-day money back, though you pay shipping. Beat THAT with a stick! http://www.avahifi.com/root/equipment/amplifier/fetvalve_550ex.htm

VTL ST85 or Shanling SP80 Mono or VTL ST150 used

do you listen to cd's mostly? if so, maybe a sweet DAC would be of help. with a barn for a listening room you are going to get a lot of glare from reflected highs anyway as you know. tubes will help i think but without some absorbtive treatments i think you will still get ringing issues. jmo. btw, i have similar speakers, kestral 2, and use a modified jolida 502b 60 wpc to good results. they make a 100 wpc integrated that is in your $ range. but you have a lot of choices for $2500 and some consider jolida entry level so..... experiment with tubes tho if you feel the urge!