consensus on passive preamps?

Thanks alot for the thoughtful and enlightening responses.
For the price I'm paying the experiment should be fun.
The DAC which will be providing the output voltage can be tune up to provide 5v of output power. (Normal is 2.5v)

Of course it's really not a preamp if it is passive.

You are correct. In truth the passive unit is nothing more than a potentiometer or simply a manual voltage regulator.

One of my DAC's has the option of running line level out to a preamp or through a stepped passive attenuator system. Since the DAC was built to produce 4 volts of output, lack of drive when going passive is not a problem. I've tried it both ways within the same system. Only difference that i could tell was that i had greater versatility in terms of being able to switch inputs and volume levels with the preamp in the system. This tells me that this preamp is doing exactly what it was designed to do: select the input and pass the signal as it receives it.

Other than that, my experience basically mirrors most of the other comments. Passive systems are harder to set up and typically lack bottom end warmth and overall dynamics. Not my cup of tea but that doesn't mean that others don't like it or prefer it over an active preamp. Knowing Tom's level of "tweaking experience", i'm sure that his system might change my mind about the whole subject. Sean
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I recently purchased a Placette passive to compare to my BC21 tube pre and a solid state. I paired the Placette with a Pass Aleph 3, as did Tom above, which does not have particularly high input impedance or sensitivity, and with Dunlavy SM1, which do have resonably high 91 sensitivity. If there was a loss of dynamics with the Placette, it must be subtle because I sure have not noticed it. In fact, while at a Modesky, Martin, Wood concert tonight (great new album by the way), I was thinking how much more striking and better sounding their material was on my system at home.

C.