So damn hard deciding which tube preamp to buy!

That's very nice Elliott, but he's apparently looking to breathe rarer air.

Preamp would be used with ht and with a mac 255 multichannel amp. Only using 3 of 5 channels.  

Ok, so you're going to apply the remaining 2 channels solely to audio.  Any reason you wouldn't have the McIntosh tube preamps at the top of your short list?

Noooo,  1 channel ctr and 2 mains. Means more watts avail for mains since its a 5 channel amp.  
Mac dont have a high end linestage, includes phonostage.  A flaw in their prod offerings

Mcintosh C500, C1000T
C2500, 2600,2700, C22 (C) (R)
Cary 98 series
Cary SP 05 series

All are valve and excellent pre amps.. All come with a Phono stage. Cary has an option to have a PS or not, Mac doesn't, they have a MM and MC phono stage onboard.

Kind of vague in what you want.. You didn't say anything about what you didn't like or did. 10.00 to 25,000? Or do you have a budget?