I see no inconsistency in most of the arguments above. I'm in the "garbage in, garbage out" camp. So I view the pre-amp as being more important than the amp. This presumes, however, all other things being equal. The amp has to mate well with the speakers and the system has to be tuned for the room, or vice versa. So if you have an amp that is suited for the speakers, and if your room acoustics are good, then all things are equal and a preamp upgrade should do more for you than an amp upgrade.
