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

@trelja 
Clearly the answer is no, he is not man enough.

@trelja

His answer is only partly true. He couldn’t even bother to wait for JA to post a response to his question, he had to immediately come here and post a click-bait thread on the subject. There was a not quite half-hearted mea culpa near the end of the thread.
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/stereophile-no-more-bench-tests
What kind of a person does that? There are plenty of designers and manufacturers that post here and do so respectfully, even when they disagree with another poster. Several even chimed in on the fuse debates. They stated their point and moved on, only replying again if they were directly questioned. Not this guy, he has multiple pages of the same reply over and over, never adding value beyond the first several posts. He apparently doesn’t realize that all members here are potential customers in an ever shrinking market. Why would you ever treat a potential customer that way? Disagree if you must, but be respectful, then leave it at that. No matter how great his product is, I would never give him a dime of my money for just that reason. I would suspect that I am not the only one. Seriously, if that is his method of marketing himself, then he is deranged. And no, I am not a fuser either. My position more closely follows what you believe, Joe.

In the same sentence you also said,   

no more bench testing for measurements and specs to keep the manufacturers and reviewers honest, it'll make you think twice on what to believe now, without the proof to back it up.

Your last post is classic cherry picking...and you are an expert at that. The quote above is a not a maybe statement, it is your presumption of fact. All you really had to do was wait for the answer from the source, JA is pretty good at following up questions. Hey, as long as you get the word out first, it doesn't matter if it's true or not. Kind of like the media these days. When the truth comes out, the best you can do is offer a weak, half hearted statement at a later date. I wasn't offended by your so called apology, I was bothered by your dishonesty at creating the post and your continued attempts to justify it. Your character, or should I say lack thereof, continues to shine through.