Tube or solid state

In my opinion, the speaker and the room are what you hear and feel the most. With that stated, I have always preferred a high powered, class A amp(in my case a Coda Model 16) paid with a tube preamp/line stage(Aric Audio Motherlode) and tube phono(Manley Steelhead). The Class A and the tube combo give you all the lush dynamics and punch that you need and you are far less limited in your speaker choice in regards to efficiency. 

FWIW I always prefer the smoothness available from a tube amp, not so much a solid state amp. But then I've not tried them all. Interestingly I've recently tried a SS preamp (in lieu of 30+ years with tubed pre-amp and haven't missed the tubed pre as much as I thought I would.  

i think Tubes are better for Jazz and Classical music like Vaughn Williams string works where you can recreate that ethereal sound you get with a live symphony. for Rock its solid state all the way, so ideally 2 amps are needed.

Yes.

I ended up with McIntosh's MA352 to "solve" this dilemma. Never looked back.

The best preamps I have heard have always been tubed (fifty years of experience in high end audio for me). I moved into a tubed preamp 25 years ago, then one by one tubed everything else.