I second the tube preamp route, it's both easier and more versatile.
Depending on which tube amp you went with, you might end up with a boatload of tubes to roll with, but preamps usually use less of them. My Blue Circle BC21 uses only two and my BAT VK3i uses five.
Another good reason Cytocycle mentions is getting a tube preamp with HT pass-thru. My VK3i has a unity gain feature which allows just this so that your tube pre and HT processor can share the same amp/s.
A solid state amp will work well with both an HT processor and a tube preamp with HT pass-thru.
Good luck!