I agree with the others that if you are not committed to vinyl, I would stick with either CD's or digital downloads and get some tubes in there somewhere. To make vinyl really effective you need a decent turntable/arm/cartridge combination, vibration control, LP cleaning rig and know how to set it all up.
Tubes work best with voltage gain, i.e. in preamps and input stages of power amps but probably the biggest tube effect is on the output stages of power amps, also the most problematic. There are also tube buffer units you can buy for a few hundred bucks that will add some of the traditional tube sound. IMO, the best way to go would be either a tubed line stage or tubed integrated amp. I have never heard a CD player with tubed output stage so I can't comment on that but they probably don't use much gain so the tube effect would likely be minimal. I agree that Kevin Deal would be a good resource and he is a really honest guy, known and dealt (pun intended) with him for many years.
Tubes work best with voltage gain, i.e. in preamps and input stages of power amps but probably the biggest tube effect is on the output stages of power amps, also the most problematic. There are also tube buffer units you can buy for a few hundred bucks that will add some of the traditional tube sound. IMO, the best way to go would be either a tubed line stage or tubed integrated amp. I have never heard a CD player with tubed output stage so I can't comment on that but they probably don't use much gain so the tube effect would likely be minimal. I agree that Kevin Deal would be a good resource and he is a really honest guy, known and dealt (pun intended) with him for many years.