I understand, look into auditioning some tube amps thru an audio dealer, and also consider buying used equipment, I bought my Cardinal's used at a substantial savings.
Ron,
I have the same Cornwall II w/ Crites updates as you and I have a pair Wavelength Cardinal X-1's these are single-ended 12 wpc mono amps. and they sound fantastic with the Cornwalls.
I had one of those back in the day, Dynaco also sold a pair of smaller speakers to be used with their Quadapter. I thought the Dyna set-up sounded better than the discreet Quad offerings (SQ) that were available back then.
Your Blog's a good read Dave I agree, but take heart "what once was old is new again" I'm looking at purchasing a mono phono cartridge for my 2-channel system, and you can buy LP vinyl recordings on Amazon now!