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Vintage gear in home theatre?

I recently put together a HT setup using a pair of AR-3a's for the front channels, AR-2ax's for the rear surrounds and, for now, an AR-1ms for the center channel (I'll probably change it out for something bigger later). No sub; with two AR-3a's in the system, none seems to be needed.

I needed new amplification anyway, since my old amp had a disagreement with a mover's forklift during our last relo.

I chose my HT pre/power pair (Sherwood Newcastle) because the pre has MM and MC phono inputs, the ability to configure almost all of its many inputs for either analog or digital, a real tape monitor/EPL loop and "analog direct" and "tone direct" settings that bypass all the digital stages and turn the unit into a straight analog stereo preamp.

The biggest headscratcher for me is trying to decide where to set the tone balance when the system is in HT mode. I can tune the system to produce fairly real-sounding reproduction of voices, music, etc., or fairly real-sounding reproduction of movie theater sound (which has never sounded anything like "being there" to me, but is still a unique experience all in itself). So I'm on the fence trying to decide whether I prefer my movies to sound like "being there," or like being in a movie theater...
 
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I'm thinking of going the the vintage direction for sound in my system. Thinking of Klipsch Cornwall's as the mains with a custom made bass unit. Heresy center. Not sure about rears yet due to space restrictions. Would the cornwalls/heresy be a good match?
I'm pretty sure they will provide enough low end! Could anyone suggest a good/affordable processor?
 
I'm thinking about going this route as well.
I've got a whole new HT setup, still in the process of getting things finished up. Have to paint speaker grills and do touchup/etc.

I'm wondering about perhaps just putting a tube amp in to power my main front R/L in-wall speakers (Polk LCi-RTS105 4 ohm @ 92db sensitivity). I've got 10" in-wall subs powered by a separate 250 watt amp so the tube amp would just be for anything above 80hz or so.
I do not use a center channel.
What I would want to do is just use the preamp outs for R/L and keep all control/switching/etc on the Onkyo TX-SR806 receiver.
I realize this is typically the opposite of what people do (SS preamp and tube amp), but I wonder if others have done this?
I've been looking at a Dynaco ST-70 as a possible candidate as they are in the ballpark of what I'm willing to spend at this time and seem like a good choice to get things started. I'm open to ideas though.

I am pretty new to tubes!
The only tube gear to date is a couple Yaqin tube buffers.
I also have analog audio production equipment. My ears can def. hear the difference btwn analog and digital.

Pics of the HT (and the rest of the basement remodel) @ http://picasaweb.google.com/levlhed/BasementAlmostDone#
 
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