I have a newer line stage preamp, and I have some older functioning preamps that are not as useful to fully use -- they lack remote control, have noisy switches, lack modern rca in/out plugs, etc. I use the phono stage from an older preamp by running a cable from the tape out plugs. "Back in the day" most preamps had decent to great phono stages, and now the trend is towards stand-alone pricey phono stages. Some may say using an old preamp instead of a new phono stage is electronically inferior, but I have found that it works well.