transistor pre with the sound of tubes

Sim Audio evolution preamps are very good as well

I think this is similar to that old line about if you’re questioning your sanity you probably aren’t quite crazy yet. If you’re worried about being able to handle tubes your question has already proven you probably are.

What’s the worst that can happen? If you forget to turn it off, you might waste a little tube life. That’s okay, preamp tubes last thousands of hours. There are a lot of preamps you could probably leave on 24/7 and just change the tubes once a year. 

Maybe you won’t like it. Maybe you will. Buy a used “starter” pre to test it out. Get a taste for it. Experiment a little. Find out what type of tubes you like. Then step up to a better pre after you know more. You can always go back. It’s only money and time that you’re trading for experience. 

A CODA 07x is fantastic. The Luxman c900u is also similar. I like the CODA better.

Parasound P6 is lovely, and has a very clean audio chain as well as RCA and XLR balanced outs. Bonus - $1600 not to bad of an investment if you later decide to spend more. 
Parasound Halo JC 2 Is a higher end pre at $4500
whar are the speakers?

I can imagine being reluctant to buy a tube amp... but not a tubed preamp. Most tubed preamps don’t radiate much heat and small tubes last thousands hours. The most enjoyable preamps I have owned have been tubed. To my ears and tastes Audio Research creates the most engaging tubed preamps, showing what exceptional preamps should sound like. They are not tubey sounding, but are detailed, natural, musical with excellent bass. I have some friends that really like Conrad Johnson as well. I have heard outstanding solid state preamps, but as natural sounding and musical as they are, they are always missing that little bit of magic that makes them engagingly magical.