How much do I need to spend to get a preamp that sounds better than no preamp?

Sometimes when we get too smart we sacrifice common sense. Not that I am more experienced or smarter than the posters here. 

For me, common sense tells me that ANY time you can eliminate cables, jacks, circuitry from the signal, it would be better- better as in 'more accurate'. Saves money, too. 

But sometimes, adding a preamp serves to RESTORE, what is lost between the source and the amp. Passives aren't always as transparent as they seem. 

I think it IS possible to have a preamp with a better volume control than what the Oppo does, easier on the cables, and thus, better sound. Or not. Which parts of science we wish to apply should not cloud the application of what will actually work better. 

I might ask, is the modulas 3a or 3b better than the L1? What about balanced? I missed if those are being used going direct with the Oppo. 

Re: balanced vs rca on the Oppo: certainly, I might expect it to be better, but I mention it because it's another variable. AI pre's are single ended. 

If I understand correctly, the amp is a McCormack? I don't remember those as being xlr inputs, but I could be wrong. Maybe it was an option? 

I just recently got a UDP-205, and it is going into an Audible Illusions M3a. I haven't been able to compare the rca vs balanced, I don't have the stuff. What I CAN say is, to spite having the "best dacs available" or at least the best for Oppo, the old Theta Prime 2 seems to be a batter dac. 

I mention this, because as far as "upgrading", the rca vs XLR is right there in the picture, ain't it? A balanced pre makes sense if the other components are balanced, even better yet, TRULY balanced, but it doesn't make sense to ugrade to balanced to take advantage of the Oppo's balanced outputs when a better dac could be had for less money.

No sir. And while I haven't read ALL the post on this long thread, everyone, even the arguments, are with the goal of transparency. the LEAST amount of change to the signal. 

If you are happy with no pre right now, that's great. General opinion here seems to think it's the best way to go. You could even take the money you saved and spend it on 5k of interconnect and REALLY have the most transparent set-up. 

There's lots of options.

Tweak: sounds like a worthwhile experiment. 

Questions might be, is there a difference having the extra jacks and cables? Is the volume attenuation by the new per better than the digital of the Oppo? 

Is the Hatton buffered or is it just pure switching?

Not that I know anything about the Hatter, but I might ask where is the line we draw for the definition of "passive". 

After all, even a volume control is a resister, and thus, buffered in a sense (I know that's not buffered). Components besides thinking of it as just straight nothing. 

We have interconnect cables we plug in, or have batteries. But we don't consider them active. 

Been my experience that all components have a certain "burn in" period. 

It's been a long time, but I remember even swapping cables, there is still an amount of time that it keeps improving, even though it may have been burned in before.

Clicking on the links provided, looks like really cool stuff. Well executed, sensible options, and nicely made. 

BTW- extrusions are pretty cheap. Maybe the most cost effective way to build a stiff, non-ferrous box. The designs strikes me as "smart" looking at the pics, like a guy who knows what he is doing and also knows where to source materiels.  

Honashagen:
Since you have the Ayre there for use in your system, the relevant opinion is your's. 

We await the results of your evaluation.