Omg yes. I bought a brand new Threshold s500 when released in ~80. Then a T2 preamp … then a Pass x350 ten or twenty years later. I can’t begin to tell you how much better contemporary stuff sounds!
Every ten years the sound was significantly improved. My old Threshold stuff sounded thin and transistor like. Each generation has been warmer, more realistic, greater current.
Pass labs (Pass being designer of Threshold) is a really good choice. But honestly I have to recommend considering a tubed preamp. the preamp really is the soul of your system, and a tube preamp can add real magic to your system.
Audio Research, VAC, and Conrad Johnson make amazing preamps with great midrange bloom and rhythm and pace… very musical and you get the detail. But it is a mater of taste… but for me, once I put a pice of tube gear in my system… it would never be traded back to solid state. All my stuff is now tubed: Audio Research.