Phono preamp to amp question

Is there something that says a phono stage preamp has to be hooked up to another preamp to produce decent sound. I was quite happy with the nad 352,minimax, and magnepans. It sounded great with no preamp besides the phonostage in the mix.

If your phono stage doesn't have a volume control and you go directly from that into an amp then the amp will be playing at max output because you don't have anything attenuating the signal coming from your phono.

If you are talking about going from your minimax into an integrated input and then line level out to an amp (hooked to speakers) then you are effectively using the integrated as the pre-amp while not using the integrated amp's drive unit. This can be done but I would not take out the drive tubes unless I confirmed with the manufacturer that it would do no harm. What you need is a pre-amp.

Get a passive preamp to control the volume on the phono preamp. There are plenty inexpensive ones that will do that for you. Check out Richard Lee audio,I use one to control the volume on my tuner.

I forgot to mention,make sure your phono preamp puts out a few volts so it can drive your amp.

There are Eastern Electric phono stages that have a volume control, it appears. You need to clarify if yours does, and if that will be used to control the volume.

There are integrated amps that have (preamp/amp) jumpers that you can remove to separate the power and and preamp sections.

If you obtain one that has this jumper (preamp/amp) removal
feature, the tubes in any part of that integrated will still run. If you remove those preamp tubes, it can throw all the voltages on the other parts off. That includes all the other tubes, and parts. This can cause damage if you try removing these tubes out of the circuit. It depends on the design some, but is way too risky to do away with them.

So yes, those extra tubes need to stay in there and do run. Filaments stay on, and other voltages will be in these unused tubes. They will sit there, and not bother anything else. This can not be done away with, unless you are a skilled amp designer.

A solid state amp will still have its transistors running in them, even if not used, the same as tube amps.

With this said, people that run amps that have tubes in them that they don't need, put a low priced tube in their place. That way you won't wear out expensive tubes in the amp, you won't be using, but do stay running.

If you choose an integrated that does have the feature, make sure the volume is controlled somewhere. And again, you do need to leave all the other tubes in it. They will run, and sort of be idling, but still running while in the with the rest of the tubes in the amp.