Why are 90% of the posts in the analog sources catagories about preamps? Preamps are not sources! Analog sources include turntables, tape decks, and radios. As far as I can figure that's it. (BTW VCRs are tape decks and TVs are radios)
I've just had a quick glance through and I see lots of phono preamps. As I see it, they get a phono output to line level, then the "line level" forum takes over.
It is an accident of packaging whether the phono preamp is in the turntable or the amplifier. Given that a good line stage does almost nothing and is often unnecessary I am surprised that the Line Level forum has so much stuff in it.