Running a CD player directly into power amps,

good, deleterious, dangerous or simply stupid? Since I never listen to my tuner, and am too lazy to bother with vinyl anymore and never got that tape deck (thank God!), can I go the direct route? An "audio consultant" (a.k.a "salesperson") told me it was unthinkable because of some mismatch in the output of one and the input of the other... He was trying to sell me a preamp. Since, long ago and far away in a different audio galaxy, it was believed that the shortest signal route (all other factors being otherwise equal) would provide the best, least degraded signal, I thought, and still think for that matter, that my idea is swell. A better CD player + a better power amp + new earthshaking speakers and voilà! Am I missing some great truth here?