@grislybutter : As others have suggested; try your available options and decide which sounds best. My guess is that if your phono stage has enough gain to allow your system to play at an acceptable volume level, using the amp’s attenuators with your phono stage driving directly into the amp will be the best choice. I have tried using a receiver as a preamp in the past, and it didn’t sound good at all. Also, you mentioned buying a second amp and bridging them… I do not recommend that. It will depend on the amp that you’re using, but the single amp in stereo may sound better (usually my experience when trying this) than bridging two of the same amp. Don’t be drawn into the idea that the output power into 8 ohms increases. Again… it depends.
phono preamp to power amp
It is probably a dumb question, but I am ignorant, why should I pretend. :)
Long story short, I gave away my integrated and bought a power amp. I am planning to buy a second one and use them as monos. For now (and then) can I plug my phono preamp to the power amp? Or I need a preamp? I googled and the answer was mostly "it depends"