How Do I Start Playing With the Big Boys and Girls

If you want to keep your sonic's pure as you say,forget the tubes,that is not what they are about. The tube sound that you will get is not pure in any way shape or form. Don't get me wrong,tubes can sound very good but if you want a clear and pure sound as you say then you will need to go with a passive volume control. I would get a good ss amp to keep things tight on the bottom end so their size stays big in sound for bookshelf's as you say and let the passive keep things pure. Some how this and a few other sites can get people thinking that if you just get some tubes you will be in hifi heaven,that is not the case at all.

Take a look at the Rogue Audio line up. The 99 pre amp and the M120's would make an incredible system. At a reasonable price.

I have to agree with Sogood51. I have always liked my Mistral integrated amp but thought that I was missing something since I didn't have tubes (After all, I much prefer tube guitar amps over ss). But then I bought a PS Audio P300 Powerplant and plugged my tt, tt preamp, and cdp, and even the amp into it, and I can now say that I don't need tubes anytime soon. Turns out, I had been missing the exceptional performance that my "budget" integrated amp can provide because I was drawing dirty, uneven power. That said, sounds like you are about to embark on a journey--have fun!

Why don't you tell us about everything you're running now, and maybe also some things you might have heard which got you thinking about upgrading in the first place. And despite what sogood51 would have you believe, the first rule is that there are no rules, and there most certainly do exist tube components which can give very high-purity sound - and others which cannot, and the same with solid-state. One thing I might say to you first though, would be not to necessarily rule out a speaker upgrade as well - I'm not familiar with your speakers, but speakers in general have come a long way since you bought yours.

I'm driving my Signums with a Krell KAV 300i. This integrated has performed very well with other monitors in the Sonus Faber line as well. A double run of OCOS speaker cable really works well with this setup, as does a REL subwoofer. In my room, the sub allows me to locate the speaker a little closer to the wall which makes the detail quite vivid. In my large room, I am trading off some soundstage, and orchestral punch, for this precision, but that's my current focus.