Seems alot better to use tubes for ht via pass thru preamp.
Why? Really? What is the actual benefit of tubes in a musical based system?
When we hear a well implemented tube-based system vs. any solid state system, perhaps the SS system costing much more, the benefits of tubes are immediate in the portrayal of space, natural decays, harmonic richness. Vocals, sax, piano, percussion all show the awesomeness of tubes when "done right". This benefit takes another major leap improvement if we have a tube rectified power supply.
Home theater is all about special sound effects around the room, left to right, front to back, even from the ceiling. Do I really care about the decays or the accuracy of the harmonics of an F-14 "flying" around my room, or a bunch of horses "running" across my chair? All I need here is a system of at least mediocre detail and dynamic contrasts capabilities to satisfy my beliefs that even for that brief moment, I really had planes or horses in my room.
hime theater bypass feature, ie not using tubes, seems to be a waste.
What really would be a waste is to have spent a lot of time and money tube rolling the preamp (line stage) with stellar performing NOS tubes, for the sake of musical reproduction, and then leaving the preamp on all the time to watch movies only to barely get any benefit from these pricey tubes....and then have to buy another costly NOS set. If all I have are the junk Sovtek or Electro Harmonix tubes that came with the unit, then the cost is not an issue. But still, what a waste to use tubes.
Why bypass tubes??
Why bypass putting 91 octane gasoline in your Toyota Corolla?
The line stage HT bypass feature was created for one simple purpose: To integrate a multi-channel HT setup into an existing high-performance 2-channel music system. It is a rather clever concept. The HT system does not affect the musical reproduction performance other than having a bunch of other speakers in the room. The audio system's only negative contribution to the HT setup is an extra IC in the chain from line stage output to HT processor and the switching to do this. An extra IC in the music system would not go well with the music system purists, but a top level IC here will do far less damage to the HT front channels than the HT processor's electronics driving the front channels. And again, who cares! I just want to hear all those cool sound effects like I hear at the cinema.
