consensus on passive preamps?

I've had 3 passive preamps over the last few years, and can say that they are good in some applications. However, there are tradeoffs.
Yes, you will likely have to spend some money to get similar purity and transparency to what a good passive offers! I have heard some very high end active preamps, like CAT's, Audio Research's top stuff, Conrad Johnson, etc, that are extremely accurate sounding(if you can quantify that). However, Passives are, in my experiences, DECIDELY LEANER and less dynamic sounding than active preamps!..this is the down side. They simply don't have the gain to boost the usually lower output signal from a source component to give it enough life! Now you couple that with the fact that MOST traditional "passive" loudspeaker units are relatively dynamically inept, and you get the antithesis of what "dynamic transparency" and realism is!! I think running passive is worth trying if you never have tried it. And it may just be the ticket for what you listen to(i.e, small instrumentals and vocals). Yet you won't get any sock you in the chest, hard hitting, dynamic effortlessness or ease to your sound. You will get more of the flat 2 dimmensional dynamics compared to what is more capable from a better active preamp.
Now, if your using very high input sensitivity amps, or low impedence source components, and even high sensitivity speakers(even active speakers), you might just find a passive is the right preamps for you!
But, for most peoples set-up's, I think they'll find passive preamps better choices for most circumstances and practicalities.
Good luck

OOOPS!...made a mistake on my last comment.
I meant to say that most people will find "active" gain preamps a better choise in the majority of circumstances, not passive units!

I've just got my dealer pissed auditioning TACT RCS2 in my current setup.
I've got back to McCormack Line Drive in passive mode.
I feel I'll never go active again.

I have both a passive and active (in 2 different systems in the house). Passive can be very very good, but it does require more effort in component matching. You can get very poor results with passive when components are not selected carefully. Also, cables and long interconnects, as mentioned can create problems seldom seen in active pre-amps. Lastly, passives rarely have the ergonomics and features of actives--due to their necessary simplified circuitry. This can be fine for certain applications, but really doesn't work for others. In the end--the final verdict--both can work well. Passive can provide better sonic value for the same (and much less $), but with the caveats mentioned.