Importance of Amplifier versus Preamp?

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.

The preamp is the air-traffic cotroller. The amps are a plane.