Are Their any Tube Preamp with Home Theater Bypass?

@maxwave , I am clueless in the ways of the tube and had no idea that they were that high maintenance. I will check with the vendors to see what the likely schedule will be and shop for the low maintenance variety. You may have saved my bacon there, thanks.

Yes, it is true that the tubes in a preamp will be “consumed” even when using HT bypass. Just keep in mind signal tubes in a tube preamp last longer than power tubes in a tube amp. 12AX7’s, for example, can last upwards of 10,000 hours. I’m about 75% 2-channel music, 25% multi-channel HT, so not a huge concern for me. If you’re the reverse, it might be more of a concern, but not nearly as much with a tube preamp as if you were looking at a tube amp with a bunch of KT88’s that you were going to be running 8 hours a day between music and HT. It was for that very reason that I went with a tube preamp and solid state power amp.

VAC preamps will provide you exceptional sound and a Home Theater Bypass.  I believe the bypass can be used without power to the preamps tubes.  Call VAC and discuss.

It’s not maintenance it is replacing power tubes. Just keep it separate. HT is better SS or Hybrid. I would never have tubes in HT. Just my opinion.

@jerryg123 , as soon as I read your post something clicked. Use a tube based pre on my desktop system and I think a solid state dac/pre in the HT. I am leaning toward the Mac MB50.