Preamps, Whats the difference, Active & Passive ?

Just a thought here about the endless debate over whether to go active or passive. I have found that even a cheap creek passive can sound great in the right system and that a $1,000.00 placette can sound bad in a missmatch situation. I have just a comment though about where one should locate a passive. I say as close to the amp as possable. And on the amp if they allow like Art Audio. All of Art Audio amps sound great with their included passive volume pots I believe because this kind of setup has no cable length after the volume pot. When you have an interconnect after the passive, no matter how long, there starts to be a problem driving that cable. So make these cables absolutly as short as possable.

If a Placette doesn't work then maybe a transformer based (Bent) passive would be a better match.

I have a Bent 102MkII passive that passes signals from my source components to a McCormack amp. I will agree that passives are system dependent (what ain't?). In my system, talk of dynamic loss, thin sound, weak bass, etc. is just that, talk, and what I am glad NOT to be hearing when I spin a disc on the platter.

I am looking a preamp (tubes) for my system since I run directly from CDP (Electrocompaniet EMC1 UP, which has balanced and single ended- I use balanced one)to amp with volume control (Berning ZH-270, which only has RCA). I need help to find any tube preamp that is matched with the Berning. I have also tried CJ-16LS, Emotive Audio Erato and First Sound Deluxe MKII (latest and new version). I appreciate your suggestions. Thanks.