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

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.

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. 

kosst

His site can be confusing

He offers straight passive as I have, also tube buffered and integrated

@kosst_amojan

I always scratch my head at "passives" with big heatsinks.

@tweak1
I read your other post and looked at the manufacturer's site. It's pretty obvious that it's being buffered. Given the heatsinks, the constant input impedance, and the fact it takes an hour+ to warm up, it's certainly got active devices in the signal path. Passives don't have parts that warm up or need heatsinks.

@tweak1
I'm looking at the "Hattor Audio Ultimate "The Big" Passive Preamp with XLR" and it's got heatsinks. Just saying....

I always scratch my head at people that have zero clue about business. Maybe look up economies of scale. Just saying... 😉