Importance of Amplifier versus Preamp?

i will echo what Z says about speaker/amp. in my recent experience with Audio Physics Caldera II, the amp made the difference between marginal sound and great sound. Not even close. I am still relatively new to separates but that was an eye opener for me.

While its true that a well matched amp will go a long way in getting the most out of a pair of speakers, if you don't have a preamp that is equally good, and well matched to the other components, the system will sound like crap regardless. More important, though, is that most people don't realize that the preamp is the problem when they're system doesn't sound right

I see. I always thought it was the amp not driving the speakers properly, and that the amp was introducing its own set of colorations. But, audio is really a set of colorations anyway, imo. There's no such thing as truly neutral, imo. But that's another discussion for another time!

"I see. I always thought it was the amp not driving the speakers properly, and that the amp was introducing its own set of colorations."

That's true, as well. But for the purposes of this discussion as to how important the preamp is, we're assuming the amp in question is getting the basics right. I can't speak for anyone else, but I made that qualification in my first post. It was actually the first thing I said.

"01-26-15: Zd542
Assuming your power amp has no trouble driving your speakers and it doesn't do anything really bad sonically, I would say that the preamp is easily more important."

So the basis for my discussion begins with an amp that is sufficient enough to get the basics right. Actually, now that we are looking at this again, all the components need to get the basics right. If you have a bad or mismatched component, it can ruin the sound of the whole system, regardless of how good the other components are. Sorry if there was any confusion on that point. Hopefully, my comments make a bit more sense now.

Gentlemen, there have been lots of interesting responses, but may I point out the possibility, especially given the first sentence of the OP's initial post in the thread ("New in the field"), that the OP may not have presented his question as optimally as possible.

It seems to me that what he is really trying to determine, with respect to his main system (and in addition to the recent question about bookshelf speakers for a second system), is what can he do for $1500 to best upgrade the specific equipment he presently has.

It seems to me that many of the 70 responses posted so far, while of academic and theoretical interest, are too general in nature to be of any practical value in this specific case.

IMO. Regards,
-- Al

Al, would you prefer members simply tell the OP to buy x, y, z preamp or
power amp? No one outside the OP can possibly know what will work best
in his system, or what will give the best bang for his buck. Nothing short of
a home audition of a component is going to prove anything one way or the
other. All any member here can do is share there own view which should
atleast help steer the OP in the right direction. Then again, he might simply
find the many contributions of academic and theoretical interest only as you
postulated..