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
I know this is a really old thread. I had to give up audio for awhile to due to a career change after the economy died. I am now making some money. I have purchased some big iron, a Classe' S700 amp. I need a pre amp. The input impedance of the Classe' is 70 Kohms. The output impedance of a Cary SLP-98 that I am eyeing is 440 ohms. The Classe' was inspected and is operating to factory specs. Will this match work?
My speakers are Canton Karat L800DC. My music is CDs, often played from a hard drive. I do like to crank my music at times. I listen to electronic chill, pop, jazz, and acoustic folk with a smidgen of rock and roll. I am not married to the idea of tubes. I am also considering a Plinius ss preamp, as well as some DAC Pre amps. I have no interest in vinyl........
Thanks in advance.
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.