Importance of Amplifier versus Preamp?

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..

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.

Ok, thanks for your reply. That's true, you made that clear from the get go. I was just relaying my thoughts and experiences. :D

"If you are seeking optimum performance it is not wise to over or under emphasize any component."

+1 with Doug here. I'm of the "everything affects everything" school.

I don't disagree with your overall point Al, but I think this thread may be of more use to the OP than you may think. If the OP wants to get into high end audio, he might as well see what it is first hand. We all disagree on issues, sometimes greatly. The reason for this is that we all have different tastes, there's a huge variety in equipment, huge differences in price, component matching is critical, and most importantly, the real possibility of spending a lot of money and failing. Audio is very hands on, and its not easy. Most new people don't realize, generally speaking, that as the price goes up, the more difficult it is to put a system together. That's very counter-intuitive to what the average person with little experience may think. Even if we are not directly answering the OP's question, hopefully he can read between the lines on some of this, and consider some issues that he may not have otherwise. How many times have we read posts where people with little experience go out and buy something expensive, and end up struggling with it because it wasn't a good choice? To the OP's credit, he has been responding, so if he's not clear on something, or has other questions, it looks like he won't have a problem raising an issue.