If you are planning on plugging your turntable directly into your preamp, then you need one with a built-in phono stage. Most newer models don't have that hence the product category "phono stages". Back before CD all the preamps had phono stages built-in. So vintage will accomplish two things; get you older used pricing to fit something in your budget, and it will eliminate need for separate phono stage.
Complicating things further, moving coil cartridges are usually low output and need extra amplification vs. higher output moving magnet cartridges. So tell us what cart you are using and that will help.
There are hardly any preamps that provide 2-3db of gain. There are passives with no gain, but they are more zebra than a common horse. In all likelihood, a traditional preamp with higher gain will be fine. Comments re: your amp being so high gain and to rule those out seems unlikely. Posting impedance specs for the amp would allow us(paging @almarg !) to confirm that. Cheers,
Spencer
Complicating things further, moving coil cartridges are usually low output and need extra amplification vs. higher output moving magnet cartridges. So tell us what cart you are using and that will help.
There are hardly any preamps that provide 2-3db of gain. There are passives with no gain, but they are more zebra than a common horse. In all likelihood, a traditional preamp with higher gain will be fine. Comments re: your amp being so high gain and to rule those out seems unlikely. Posting impedance specs for the amp would allow us(paging @almarg !) to confirm that. Cheers,
Spencer