The Snowball is an USB mic so there's an onboard preamp. It's a cheapo mic - but that doesn't automatically put it into the "unusable" category; you simply need to assess whether or not the quality you're getting from it is enough for you (admittedly this can be hard to gauge without anything to reference to). Anyway, the room/space you're recording in and your own microphone technique will have even more impact on it than the mic itself, no joke. There's obviously a point where "polishing the turd" doesn't get you any further, but work with what you have instead of trying to fix a problem that is or isn't there by throwing money at it.