What is a "line level input"?

Thanks very much. Although a musician for almost all my life, I am just now getting "feet wet" in higher end audio. What an education the last three weeks have been. Thanks for your input and assistance. Rob

Jvia; thanks for the kind words. Rob; I would just add that TVs, VCRs, DVD players etc. that have "audio out" terminals are also line level components. In a 2nd system, I connect my VCR to pre-amp so I can then play the sound track of movies through the much better quality Vandersteen 2Ce speakers (better than TV speakers). It sounds great, and is nice especially with musicals. Cheers. Craig.

Generally a line level preamp is a device that provides gain only. Most devices require gain only. A phonograph, without getting too technical, requires equalization ( or filter if you will ) to match the standard RIAA response curves of the LP.