Yes - the Tape Out should provide a pre-ampified and equalised source that you can use. You will probably need to turn on Tape monitoring - how you do that will vary from amp to amp. Note also that this is usually a line level output (i.e. not affected by the volume control on the amp) and that typically you won’t get any output from the amplifier’s speakers unless you loop Tape Out back to Tape In.

Thanks Antifon for the answer - still considering a pre amp as it will be much smaller than my old Rotel Amp but will go with that first