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

I'll put a vote in for the Second Edition Ambrosia preamp from SST: 

https://www.sst.audio/new-products/ambrosia-2000-second-edition

This is a new and improved version of James Bongiorno's first edition Ambrosia. James always believed in giving the customer a lot of functionality at a reasonable price. This preamp has tone controls, MC and MM phono inputs with low cut filters, tape loops, headphone jacks, many inputs, and now a home theater bypass input!
The volume control has 96 steps, 1db/step and there is a remote control with a big volume control knob. 
I've been running the Ambrosia Second Edition for a few weeks now and I am very happy with it. The preamp is very quiet. You can set a jumper in the unit to lower the gain by 14dB which helps lower your noise floor. This is good for people like myself who don't play loud. 
Check it out. 

$15,000.00!

“The result of trolling is that someone has to correct your misrepresentation- and then we go on and on, around and around. That's classic trolling.”

george, you’re clearly a knowledgeable person and have a lot to contribute and can obviouly say whatever you want but this sort of behavior tends to damage your credibility, if you actually care. You accuse others with a vast technical experience in the field for expressing their opinion for personal gains and one could argue the same for your opinion and your passive attenuators. Not a productive approach to exchange knowledge. And no, I’m not stalking you, just seem to keep running into the same thread and reading the same arguments.

I believe what Nelson Pass is indicating, is that with many sources, and in a perfect world ( system match ), passive would be ideal. However, he knows, as most of do, the perfect world does not exist. Just my interpretation of all my readings. Enjoy ! MrD.

Thank you mrdecibel, and that's exactly what I post  "system (impedance) match" whether it's direct or with passive, which today is more the norm than the exception.
 There are just some here that are protecting their interests, like a dog with a bone.

Cheers George