Yes, you can use it through an analog input as others have said. But absolutely plus one on a pure preamp will sound better! I don’t know your price range, but an Audionet Pre G2 was my first ear opening foray into amazing sound.
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.