In a superheterodyne receiver, which stage provides the final signal power to drive the detector?

In a superheterodyne receiver design, the bulk of the signal amplification happens in the Intermediate Frequency (IF) stage. After the mixer converts the incoming radio frequency to the IF, the IF amplifier takes over. The IF amplifier boosts the signal significantly to a level strong enough to properly operate the detector stage, which requires a robust signal to effectively extract the audio information. Distractors like the RF amplifier only provide initial low-noise gain at the front end, while the speech amplifier only works on audio frequencies after the detector has already done its job.