Audio Research preamps EXCESSIVE OPERATING COSTS

So, with original equipment tubes, the ARC Ref 6 costs about 300.00 max to retube.

https://www.thetubestore.com/audio-research-reference-6-original-equipment-package

If your are considering going to that level, I would think a sound bar would be your best choice for a dual use room situation... but honestly, even if you didn’t, the cost per hours really would be negligible in the long run.

Please try not to cry to much.

Decooney, yes tubes were used in TVs for years... not because they worked well, but because that's all we had.
I remember pulling the heavy TV  out from the wall, removing the 10-20 screws and power cord interlock so I  could access the insides of the TV,  making a map of where each type of the 10-15 tubes were located or in some cases, hidden...pulling them all out, driving to the electronics store with a showbox full of tubes and testing every one of them...getting positive results on many, negative results on some and unknown results on others. You spend money buying replacements for the known bad ones and maybe some of the questionable ones, take them all home and carefully re-install the tubes, put the cover on, cross your fingers and turn it on. If it worked, great! If not....back to the store to re-test the questionable ones, repeat until it works.
This was a once in 6-18 months routine.
No...when transistors became available, NOBODY kept building TV s with tubes. SS was the way to go.
Yes, I have a tube phono stage and it's great. And, it's only on for a half hour to an hour before I listen to an LP, and gets turned off when optical or other digital sources are in use.

Isn't this sort of like complaining about how much gas your Ferrari uses or would be be more of a Camaro analogy?

  DUH! I’ll give you $100 for your ARC preamp and that’ll give you a start toward something that you should have bought in the first place! Somebody needs to come up with a quick online audiophile competency test. Have you checked the "ohmage" on your speakers? Maybe they use too much energy too. Sorry. Maybe we need new ’thinking caps’ or ’tin foil hats’ or those crazy laser hats that are supposed to grow hair. Anything would be an improvement.