If you had 10k for pre and power amp but you had

I agree, although that's quite a bit of a mis-match.

I consider them equally important sonically, and try to find components of comparable quality that complement each other, ie the ol' synergy thing. ICs, speaker cables, and power cords must work well with the components too. And then there's the source componets..........

But if I absolutely had to allocate bucks the way you say, I actually have sort of done it the opposite, ie my tube pre-amp had an MSRP of $3300., and my SS amp (with upgrade) $7500. I have no regrets doing it this way, and in fact there are some excellent tube pre-amps available out there for pretty reasonable prices-- well, at least in the "high end" context. Cheers. Craig

.........Swampwalker's right, a $2K amp with an $8K pre-amp is quite a mis-match,IMO.