Suggestions for a pre amp with HT passthrough?

All info above is correct; HT bypass is convenient but not required. Be careful however if you go with the unity gain on the conventional pre route. If you forget and switch over to a music mode, its likely that unit gain will produce a very loud playback, enough to scare the living bejesus out of you at the least, if not damage your speakers or your ears. There are a few pre-amps with HT bypass that do not need to be turned on, but I don't know which. I will add VAC pre-amps to the list with HT bypass.

Having gone from a ss preamp to a tubed one, I'd definitely recommend the tubed versions. When you utilize the bypass mode, you'll gain the advantages of the circuit routed through tubes, even with movie dialogue: a more dimensional, musical and pleasing sound .
I'm sure there are very good ss designs out there but, from my experience, I'm convinced of the benefits of tubes. I use a VTL 2.5 with HT bypass and there haven't been issues with tube burnout or maintenance. In fact, I've left the preamp on continuosly for almost 2 years with no issues thus far. Tubed amps often require biasing and other maintenance, but tubes introduced through the preamp or a tubed cd are low maintenance and big on benefits.
You can also tailor the sound via tube rolling to match your tastes, which you can't with ss. Good luck and have fun.

hi, Take a look at the Juicy Music Peach for $1500 or so. It has only 2 6H30's and forgot what rectification he is using.