Two Channel Preamp with pass through

[Barry]

 My brother fell in love with my McIntosh 170 and would like to get a two channel pre-amp to go with his surround system, which is a Marantz. So he wants a two channel with a pass through.

We wanted to know what sounded better tubes or solid state. Is there a big difference nowadays?

What is the maintenance on tubes? How often do they need to be relaced and do they heat up the room?
Of course, for two channel sound, sacds, cds, streaming, do you hear an major difference between the two?
Is there a two channel pre-amp that would you recommend.

[TRainH2O]

I think the Anthem 2-channel pre has the HT passthrough.

As for tubes vs solid state.......it's all personal preference but also the rest of the system, especially speakers.
My BFF recently bought his first tube gear, a McIntosh C220, and he absolutely loves it. He has it mated to a solid state amp which I think is the best of both worlds. He says that his Klipsch Cornwall IVs have never sounded better. I haven't heard it yet but I will soon.

As for warming the room, the tubes in a preamp are usually the smaller 12ax7s and may have 1 to 4 of them. The heat they would generate would be negligible especially when compared to a true Class A amp.