Will this work, and at what sonic cost?

Hi,

Short version: Theoretically, what should I expect in the way of sonic degradation from running a signal through the tape out of the SS pre into the line in of my new tube preamp? Is it just going to be like a buffer stage or what?

here's the background for details: I just got a Yaqin MS-12B mm/line stage preamp. It has one MM input and one line input, dual outputs of .7V and .25V, volume control, and NO other features (balance, mono, etc.).

I'm running the .7V output through a Sherwood AM-7040 mosfet amp. So far both CD and TT (denon dl103 through a denon transformer) sound good.

But I tried running the .25V output through my headphone amp (Meier Corda Pro); there's nowhere near enough gain -- I have to turn both pre and 'phone amp way up to get even a listenable volume. This is nearly as true running the .7v output through the 'phone amp, which I just don't understand.

Anyway, my first bright idea is to plus my headphone amp into the tape 2 out on my full featured ss pre.
This of course does no good if my source is going direct into the Yaqin, So what if I plug my CDP and tuner (as well as the second arm for my TT) into my SS pre, and plug the tape 1 out into the line in from of the Yaqin. The tape out should be a pretty straight line from the selected source, (except phono) no? I've done this, and the headphone amp now has gain, but I'm not sure of the quality yet. And I do get sound from the SS tape out through the Yaqin on my other sources, but haven't had a critical listen yet.

Did I do good, or is this a terrible compromise?


Thanks!

Richard