what's 'Active preamp' vs 'Passive preamp'?

Actually, you can make the volume attenuation even simpler - avoiding a "box" and having to add another set of interconnects. I have a pair of "shotgun" attenuators which sit between my interconnects and my amp.

Attenuator in my System

As with most things audio, there are many opinions regarding the sound quality provided by active and passive preamps, including the in-line attenuators discussed above. In general terms, a preamp accomplishes three things, a. switching between sources, b. attenuation (or gain-if active) of the source output signal, and c. impedance matching (or in some cases, mismatching). Item c (in addition to output levels and sensitivity), is a reason that passive preamps do not work well in all systems. If you are really interested, or really bored, there is a ton of reading on those subjects in these threads.

Thanks for the responses.

The main reason I asked this question is because I was wondering about not using preamp at all. That question led to this question.

I actully posted another question on that subject, but no response yet.

I'll kind of repeat what I said on that posting.

I'm looking at some of the newest high performance DACS such as Benchmark DAC1, Bel Canto DAC3, Slim Devices Transporter, etc, and I noticed most of those DACs have built in volume control with remote.

So, I was thinking that I can connect these DACs directly to my Power Amp eliminating preamp entirely.

I was wondering what's the implication on that approach?
What'll be the pros and cons?

Is it better because I'm skipping additional device that I don't need? or A good preamp somehow does some good thing to improve the sound quality?

There is just something to be said for a good active preamp IMO. I have tried passive ones and they did not float my boat. I have used CDP directly into amp and it was missing something. Over a period of time it sounded lifeless or sterile as did the passive.

Eandylee

"Is it better because I'm skipping additional device that I don't need? or A good preamp somehow does some good thing to improve the sound quality?"

I'm of the opinion that the simpler the signal path, the better the sound MUST be, in theory. HOWEVER, practically, that doesn't always result. There are techical reasons having to do with characteristics measured by input sensitivity, impedance, etc. I can't fully understand that stuff so, I resort to trying it out and listening. It's pretty inexpensive to try...Give it a shot!