Hey, My favorite way to get warmth and revealing is a tube preamp and a SS amp. I use ARC Ref 2se with a Luxman M10X. Even if you went with an much older preamp and went reasonable class D amp. Even some of the Chinese stuff as long as it can drive your speakers properly. It is the sound you car looking for. Rogue has great preamps that won’t break the bank. My first preference would’ve the preamp. It is the soul of your system. One of my favorite integrated amps of all time is the Rogue Sphinx. Tube input, 100w SS amp, and it it has a very nice phono stage for $1800 with the metal remote. I hope this helps.
Warm vs Revealing—the struggle for balance
For me my upgrade path has been finding balance between warmth and dynamics/detail.
It’s looks something like this: find satisfaction (Raven Nighthawk + Tekton), get upgrade bug seeking more dynamics, get more revealing gear (Ma 352), feel fatigued, buy new tubes (Telefunken) and speakers (SF Olympica); want more dynamics (Mc 601 + c50), I immediately get tube pre because of fatigue (c2300), still too sharp (new tubes and DAC); excellent balance, but of course sell speakers, new speakers too revealing, buy Cardas cables to replace Wireworld (ahh just right for now, but may be a little more revealing might be nice).
And oh yeah, working on fixing the damn room problems!
Chasing the unicorn.
Anyone else doing this back and forth?