tube pre amp plus solid state power amps?


HI there,
My systems have always been tube system all the way through phon stage + pre amp+ power amps, but recently I got a little tire of maintenance of these amps and thought about changing power amps to solid state. I listen classical music. I always love tube amp particular from my LP collection. I am worrying about using solid state power amp will loose the texture of the sound that I like. However, I have done a little reading, some one said high end power amps will keep that sound, especially something like McCormack DNA-500 and Claytons amps. There are some writing confuse me, such as: “it is not important to use tube phon stage, solid state will be better.” I even read the statement says: pre amp is the least important of the whole audio chain.”

Well, what I am thinking about is keep tube system for both my phon stage and pre amp, use solid state for power amps replace tube system. Does anyone can tell me this will be a good change, or I need either whole system on tubes or on solid state?

Thanks
suikang
Revisiting and resurrecting this one year old thread after recently selling my all tube pre/amp ready to try an active full tube preamp in combination with a decent solid state amp voiced more on the "tube" side. All Cary Audio products. Hope to try the SLP98 tube preamp with the SA-200.2 solid state amplifier with more of a known "tube" sound to it for an SS amp. I'm still thinking the key to this equation rests a lot on the quality and design of the solid state amp to pull it off well.  Should know more in a few weeks, hoping to find others who’ve settled on this combination and did NOT go back to an all tube system - staying with one of each, liking it more so?
How will a Cary SLP98 800k ohms - output work with a Pass Aleph 2 - 10kOhms input (unbalanced) I think it will be OK ? The Pass is over x10 the output of the Cary. 

How will a Cary SLP98 800k ohms - output work with a Pass Aleph 2 - 10kOhms input (unbalanced) I think it will be OK ? The Pass is over x10 the output of the Cary.
Usually the issue is the output impedance at 20Hz. In this case, the Cary is about 6.8kohms- and so will be a bit bass shy if the input impedance of the amp is less than about 20Kohms- and ideally the amp impedance should be even higher.

Additionally, to get the most out of a Pass Labs amp which is a balanced design, its best to present a balanced signal at its input. There are tube preamps that can do that and are perfectly comfortable with the input impedance of the Pass Labs amps.