Which is more important - you ask?
It’s kinda like ice cream, it's about different flavors and what you like in the end. I was an all solid state owner for too long. Should have tried tube preamps sooner than I did several decades later. Today, I keep my tube Cary SLP-98 TUBE Pre-amp running 100% of the time as my front-end. And, now swap out a Cary V12R (12) EL34 Triode/Ultralinear TUBE amp for a Cary SA-200.2 SOLID STATE amp every once in a while. While the tube amp is glorious and lush, when I swap back to the solid state amp periodically - it brings another dimension of dynamics at times. In either case, I would have a very hard time going back to a solid state preamplifier though. Really like having a tube preamp on the front-end; particularly when each of the back-end amplifier types are specifically designed to work with a particular tube pre-amplifier. More "important" is finding a good "match" between any preamp or amplifier (tube or SS) as I learned the hard way through trial-and-error. Good luck.
It’s kinda like ice cream, it's about different flavors and what you like in the end. I was an all solid state owner for too long. Should have tried tube preamps sooner than I did several decades later. Today, I keep my tube Cary SLP-98 TUBE Pre-amp running 100% of the time as my front-end. And, now swap out a Cary V12R (12) EL34 Triode/Ultralinear TUBE amp for a Cary SA-200.2 SOLID STATE amp every once in a while. While the tube amp is glorious and lush, when I swap back to the solid state amp periodically - it brings another dimension of dynamics at times. In either case, I would have a very hard time going back to a solid state preamplifier though. Really like having a tube preamp on the front-end; particularly when each of the back-end amplifier types are specifically designed to work with a particular tube pre-amplifier. More "important" is finding a good "match" between any preamp or amplifier (tube or SS) as I learned the hard way through trial-and-error. Good luck.