I found myself smiling as I read your testimony about the comparative quality between today's "rot your gums" electronics and first class equipment of the tube era. An experience which you might find rewarding is to pick up a Dynaco FM-3. It is by no means in the same league as the McIntosh tuner, but it is no slouch either. The circuit topology is clean and elegant in its simplicity. The tuner has pleanty of I.F. gain and actually provides several dB of limiting on the conversion noise alone. The FM-3 was available either complete or as a kit. To support home construction, David Haffler developed an ingenius alignment technique that required no test equipment. During alignment you used the unit's built-in tuning indicator as a visual measurement device that displayed relative signal strength.
The sound quality is quite good and since it sports a "plate follower" output configuration, it can drive nearly anything. You can pick one up in nice condition on ebay for about $75. It's also a great starting point if you are interested in doing some modifications. Some changes to the output filtering can make a positive difference in sound quality.
Now if you really would like a treat look around for a Marantz 10B tuner. It is perhaps the finest tuner ever built. It was designed by Dick Sequerra in the mid 1960s. It sports many state of the art embelishments available at that time only in military equipment. These too find their way onto ebay, but typically command $1500.00 - $3,000.00. This tuner even includes a built in oscilloscope that displays multipath, as well as left & right output levels. Best of luck with your pursuit.
Chris