If you were to build a system from the ground up, would you get a SS amp to mate with a tube pre amp or a tube amp to mate with a SS preamp?If you have to have some solid state, then I think it better that you get a tube preamp. The issue is that in general, transistors tend to lose low level detail and essentially replace it with brightness (both due to low levels of higher ordered harmonic distortion which tubes lack, which is why tubes sound 'smoother').
No matter how good your amp or speakers are, they won't make up for a loss of resolution upstream. So you want to get that bit right.