I will add to what @russ69 @tablejockey said. Once I went to my Hagerman trumpet and then added the Hana everything changed with regard to the music sounding like music. No longer did I mess around with the Ortofons (always seemed to be listening to the gear and not the music) I would monkey with the Ortofon black (and bronze) too much to try and get it to sound decent on the vpi. I know there are a lot of people using them with great results but with my equipment they never did jive with the sound I wanted to hear.
I have never heard your pre and I certainly would never be able to tell you if changing your pre would help, but perhaps the table (unless you are ready to move on) could stay and different gear might help?
just my thought after going through my latest gear upgrades.
db