Yeah, if you’re gonna use an external DAC you’re better off just getting an analog preamp without a DAC to avoid the added cost of something you likely won’t use and noise. As others mentioned you can use a pre with an internal DAC no problem, but check to see that it doesn’t digitize all inputs because you don’t want that.
Using external DAC with preamp with built-in DAC
I need a new preamp. Most of the new preamps I've looked at do far have built-in DACs. My old one did not and I ran the digital outputs from my CD player into my DAC, then ran the outputs from my DAC into my preamp's CD input and it worked well. It seems like I should be able to do that with newer preamps with built-in DACs too. Will this still work? I like the sound of the DAC I'm using now.