virus and preamps?

[Wandering Kid]

hey, ive been looking around for some time about this but do you really need to operate a virus with a preamp? i ask because listening to some of hollowcell's audio demos - i just cant get my virus that loud and clean without boosting the volume in fruity's mixer (quite alot to get it up to the level of the rest of my tracks). which of course raises the noisefloor. bass is pretty blurry. and running my guitar through the virus is even worse for hiss and blurry bass.

so how many people use a preamp with their virus? have you tried using it without? does a preamp make a big difference to the quality of the audio output from the virus?

thanks for the input guys. i ask this question because i have a virus b on my desktop that doesnt get much use at all for a number reasons including the loudness issues and the blurriness of the sound.

and i just tried out the USB ultra focus demo just now and was totally blown away by it. same price as my virus b :O