Dogruff asked about eliminating the pre amp from his music reproduction equipment. Perhaps we have not yet given him the answer he wants even though Vinyl Grinder's clear sketch of how to connect a volume control is good.
It may still look daunting to anyone that is not an engineer and just interested in music. There is a simple way to do this of course. That is to connect the source direct to the power amplifier.
Obviously a volume control is needed somewhere. It could be on the source, some have this, CD players, cassette decks (if anyone still uses them) etc. or power amplifiers sometimes have them.
If either power amp or source has a volume control, he can just try connecting directly up. If the CD has a remote, volume may be on that.
Failing the above, perhaps Maplin or some other supplier have a cheap simple audio attenuator (volume control) with phono connectors that could be experimented with.
As for Creative sound cards being of "shite quality", everyone is entitled to their own views of course, but several years ago I did fairly careful tests putting high quality audio into this type of soundcard and comparing the output with the original. Good quality ancillary equipment was used (speakers and amplifiers etc.) Neither I nor several golden eared friends (including musicians and audio enthusiasts, one a BBC Sound Engineer) could hear any difference. It is unlikely that they were all wrong in their conclusions or that the equipment was poor/faulty.
Furthermore, I have built many PCs using this same soundcard, and a lot of them are integrated into Hi Fi systems (mainly containing excellent equipment like Quad ESL63s, Radford amplifiers etc. etc.) of discerning friends and they very satisfied with the audio quality.
Just for the record, I have not blocked any of Vinyl Grinder's e mails. Only just checked my PMs (Private Messages on this forum) and there is one from Vinyl Grinder dated 22 Feb. which I have now replied to. I do not seem to get an ordinary e mail to inform me when a PM is to be read. This does happen with other forums that I am on. Perhaps someone can advise on this.