SML VLF Q vs active amplification

[electrolust]

I'm novice wrt electronics in general, and pretty much clueless wrt RF.  So excuse me if this is just dumb or if I ask obvious followup questions.

I'm building a 5.5kHz receiver using what I guess is referred to as SML.  Probably not too different than a DCF77 receiver.

If I optimize for packaging, which is important for my final product, I would choose small SMD inductors which have low Q factors at the resonant frequency.  I will (obviously?) need to amplify the signal.  Since I can just actively filter for desired bandwidth at each gain stage, do I need to worry too much about the Q factor of the antenna LC circuit?  My understanding is that the resonant signal peak needs to be above atmospheric and thermal noise floor (important at VLF), so to the extent Q affects the peak amplitude it matters, but beyond that I'm hoping I can pick the best inductor within my packaging constraints and not necessarily optimize for Q.

[CopperCone]

I'm no RF expert either, but basically the benefit of a prefilter is of course its harder to bring devices to saturation on a rail and cause errors.

It increases robustness to nasties. and being passive, its lower noise. so your op-amp noise has less effect.