New to the two channel world - Advice needed on preamp

Thank you for the info Dspr. I agree. Audio is so personal. I will start with obtaining more knowledge and move forward from there. 

Thank you everyone that responded. Glad to be joining the two channel world. 

You might consider the Benchmark DAC3-L, which is a line preamp and state of the art DAC in your price range new . It has a usb input , 2 coax & 2 optical inputs , and 2 analog inputs . It has a lower noise floor than anything I saw mentioned , with 2 pair of RCA outputs for your amps and subwoofer , and a pair of balanced outputs should you later get a power amp having that professional grade of input . It also sounds fabulous and is reliable, and should you not like it , there will be no problem reselling it .
My opinion .

Another + for the Schiit Freya. Makes MUSIC.

dspr has given you good info. I am partial to CJ myself. however, ARC is a good choice as well. FWIW, I have a CJ PFR which I was waiting till fall to sell. It has been serviced, cleaned and  new  capacitors installed. this was done early this summer. I bought a CJ CT5 which is why I have the PFR. Email me if interested.  

given that you are playing at least cd quality stored on a ssd drive or streamed through a proper usb cable .the dac and preamp are very important to the total sound signature of the system .
cables:after proper component matching cables (rca/speaker)allow you a little more fine tuning sometimes it doesn't work like you hope... .a usb cable is not the same since cheap cables are not really made for audio so  get an entry level from one of the known companies .peachtree are a safe bet since they aim for pleasant sound and you at least solve the dac preamp issue and don't need to spend on interconnects. 
you can swap the 2 chinese 12au7 tubes for something like nos mullards(smooth and warm huge bass) or brimar(warmer less bass ) for 100-200$ and voice it more to the warm side and you have other options (nos are the best ).2 nice cheap small components are the loki eq and ifi itube2 tube preamp/buffer they will give more control over the tone and soundstage