Does a preamp have enough power to drive small speakers on its own? Could preamp output be mated to an impedance adjusting "black box" to bypass a main amp? I've seen many preamps (Cary comes to mind) that look like they could do it.
With a transformer, some preamps might be able to drive small speakers at low volume but there's a reason they are preamps, not amps: inadequate power!
Preamps by themselves don't have the current to drive low impedance loads nor the output voltage to drive high impedance loads. If another driver (gain) stage is added, it can be done - then it would be called an integrated amp :)
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