Best Tube PreAmp - McIntosh vs. Audio Research vs. VAC vs. Atma-Sphere

Your front l&r will be a 2 channel ’front stereo system’ via an integrated amp or preamp/amp pair. Used by itself for music, OR, used BY the AVR for video.

that preamp will need HT Bypass INPUT, that is how the AVR controls the front volume along with all the other channels it amplifies.

AVR will need FRONT L&R Preouts.

Consider low bass now: from the main speakers always, or if sub(s) will be used: how you get/control/ and if always available i.e. volume controlled via AVR and for just music, how use sub(s).

I would not complicate that with tubes myself, however, you know how much heat your cabinet/area/room can handle.

I think the prospect of not burning through tubes while watching TV/movies outweighs whatever you might lose in sound quality for watching video.  But, that’s me. 

I get that, but you can get thousands of hours out of the tubes. If you spend the same time listening to music the life is the same.

Stereophile did a survey at one of their shows in the early 2000s. It was two identical home theatre setups. One had the normal box store amplification and speakers, the other had high end stuff. People were not told what was different and were asked to gauge their experience. The room with the better equipment got better marks for picture quality! But the only difference was the sound.

FWIW, I use a C2700 for two channel and HT purposes, and am very happy with it. McIntosh also makes AV processors and the like if you want to take it a step further.

The MP1 is among the top 4 of my list. What's the life of various tubes in MP1, number of tubes/ models, and how expensive they're? Does certain tubes have to be replaced in set? 

@hitsofmisses  None of the tubes are stressed so they last a long time. The linestage and output of the phono section will easily go 10,000 hours.

The 12AT7s in the phono section front end do have to be quiet, but these are the tubes nearest the rear panel; the front and middle phono tubes do not have the same noise requirement. When the front end tubes get too noisy for that service, they can run fine later in the circuit. We've seen preamps in the field for 20 years that still have good tubes in them (with the customer claiming the preamp was in constant use; whether that is true or not is a different story...).

Hello,

Be careful about choosing a tube preamp for Ht bypass. When they shut off the tubes completely you will lose 10db of gain. The tubes in a preamp last a long time. So go with the brand that leaves them on even during HT bypass. 10 db is a lot for a surround processor to make up. I think $400 every 10-15 years is ok.