Is a Phono required?

A phono section is only needed if you plan on using a turntable to play LP records.
You will need to add an external phono preamp to your system if you want to play records, otherwise forget it.

Yep, if you wanna play LP's you'll need a phono preamp. It takes the very low level output from the phono cartridge in a turntable and converts it more or less according to something called the RIAA (record industry association of america) curve to produce a relatively flat signal of suffcient level so your power amp can amplify it. And there are two kinds of phono cartridges, moving magnet and moving coil. So be sure your phono preamp is compatible with whatever cartridge you choose to use.

BTW, you say you have a 'digital' pre - does this digitize all incoming analog signals?

Yep - my pre does digitize everything...hence the need to move to a tubed preamp. This causes all sorts of problems with source material. On one side of the spectrum, my pre will digitize pure analog signals from LPs. On the other side, it will digitze SACD/DVD-A sources, which results in downsampled versions. Its something I didn't consider when I bought the pre, but now I'm busy fixing it. In the meantime, I wanted to gather the analog setup...

The reason I was asking the question was to identify whether I should look for a built-in phono for a tubed pre. Thanks to my fellow agoners, its apparent that I'll need one. Thanks!