How do I know if I need gain adjustment or a pre-amp?

I think in this case another thread is even more appropriate: What is the Maximum Range I can Get?

A preamp you can often install closer to the antenna which can help.
Also the preamps generally used have very good filtering.
I favorite this one:

Useful items for purchase · wiedehopf/adsb-wiki Wiki · GitHub

But considering you already have good range, i doubt you’ll get too much improvement.

Then you can also get an Airspy Mini in addition to the preamp.
But that improvement is mostly message rate, not necessarily range.

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