Sound quality impact - preamp vs power amp?


So how best to deploy available funds.  Better to spend on a high end preamp or outstanding power amp?  This assumes you already have high end stuff elsewhere in system.


emergingsoul
@jaulbrich -- Your post made me laugh because it was such a compact and insightful compendium of (to modify the old jazz standard title) "All the Things We Are." I also laughed because there is this constant forgetting about what the hobby is about (in other words, that it can be about so *many* things, none superior to the others). And none of us think or say, "Someone who knows about main courses really knows about 'food' but a baker or a wine maker doesn't." No, we say, they *all* know about food. So, there is something weird that happens (sometimes) in this hobby when people want to collapse the different purposes at work into a single end, and then argue about that end. 
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Preamp gets the nod, as regardless of the amp the sound quality can be no better than what the preamp feeds it.

Yes, a high sound quality amp can sound better with the same preamp, however, that is a result of the the lower sound quality amp NOT achieving the sound quality feed to it from the preamp.  

Cost wise, a match of preamp & amp sound quality will result in the best sound quality for the BUCK. 
Tubed or solid state.  A great tubed pre- is going to be expensive, but you can pair it with a relatively inexpensive ss power amp and get amazing results.  

If you're going ss, then the world is your oyster.  I think you can find good ss pre's for not too much money.  An example would be the Wyred4Sound STP pre new or a used Tom Evans Vibe/Pulse (my current pre which I've got mated to a relatively inexpensive tube amp) And then you can find great ss or tubed amps for not too much $.  

I had an EAR 834 mated to a First Watt J2 and it was one of the better combos I've had.  My best combo was the Vibe/Pulse and a Berning 300B Siegfried.  The biggest regret of my audiophile career was selling my Siegfried to a good friend.  One of the few pieces I've had that actually appreciated in value.