Importance of Amplifier versus Preamp?

FWIW, I just bought and set up a pair of stand mount monitors from Music Direct (Wharfedale Dentons at half price ($500). I used a tube amp and they sound far beyond my expectations. They are well reviewed in the English mag's. Caveat - they are rear ported and won't sound too good backed up to a wall.

It is often said that your amplifier is the engine of your system, and the preamp is the heart. Both are important and should work synergistically. I previously ran a Boulder 1060 amp with a heavily modded Ayon CD-5s as linestage and that combo worked very well. With that said, the Boulder had a bigger influence over the sound. Same deal with my previous Classe power amp. So i'd have to give more weight to the power amp, then pre. With pre/power combo's I generally prefer a ss power amp with a tubed linestage which gives you the option to roll the stock tubes with better matched NOS tubes (unless we're talking about Vitus, Soulution or Goldmund).

Another option to consider is a good integrated amp. There are some really nice integrateds out there which can be had at a bargain 2nd hand such as Hegel, Luxman, Modwright, Simaudio Moon Evo and Musical Fidelity, as well as tubed integrateds such as Vac & Leben.

It's an easy experiment.
First try running without an amp.

Then try without a preamp

Which is more important will become perfectly clear.

Overall, as far as this thread goes; I'm in agreement with Mapman. If I needed RIAA eqing, perhaps I might feel differently.

I'll agree pre-amp is probably the most important tweak and if you are running a phono you need one.You also need a volume controll. ANd maybe a way to switch multiple input sources if you have those. A pre-amp is just one such device to serve those functions when needed. Other than that, its just a potentially expensive signal processor that is not very flexible compared to the alternatives.

These days, it pays to consider function, not form. A traditional preamp provides various functions that may be had equally well or better in other forms these days.