well, synergy, synergy, synergy...all of our amps LOVE tube preamps, and so far, I haven't experienced a mismatch yet...however, the shades of tubes, of course, is tremendeous and such with tube rolling somewhat of a chameleon that you can adjust to your own preference....great tube preamp with shitty tubes = mediocre, while mediocre preamp with great tubes gets you pretty darn close to the former...ahhh, the joys of tube rolling....that's one reason why we have 12 AU 7's, which is the easiest one to get..of course the Candela is a very good pre, especially at the price point, but again, the amps will play nice with all of them....and can't argue with all of the ones mentioned in this thread.......
as for the amps, no worries...especially if you have high efficiency speakers...if you like tubes, then that's what you should have...no argument here...for heaven's sake, if there wouldn't be stark personal differences, then digital amps wouldn't exist...........