Passive preamp

I own the original version of the Schiit Freya and it can switch immediately (the newer Freya + "improved" version shuts off the tubes when one of the other outputs, passive or FET, are utilized...so you have to wait for the tubes to warm up if switched) between the 3 modes...passive sounds fine but the tube mode sounds better for my tastes. Just more "there" there. Switching among modes keeps the tubes honest since if you notice a degradation of some sort with the tube mode you simply replace the tubes.

@georgehifi 
I have sent you an email asking for pricing info for the Lightspeed Attenuator. A friend and I will test it seeing as though the reviews have been rave. Excellent work, George. Incredibly excellent work. However, when I am having a party (I have them quite often) and would like to change among sources, it would be great to have a passive tube preamp that can accomplish this.

Sent with mandatory propaganda attachments.  And yes as Wolf points out the Freya is a great universal unit, I have recommended it many a time here on Audiogon.
As for a passive though the transparency/dynamics of the Lightspeed has no equal, as there are no contacts  in the signal path in the circuit.
 https://ibb.co/XbCsn2B

Cheers George

How come passives are not more popular? Everyone seems to use active and seems more commonly made as well.

Passive preamps are more difficult to get properly integrated because of the potential impedance mismatch. A mismatch that can also vary by volume setting.

Also, without active input/output buffers, the individual components' circuit electrical characteristics will travel through the entire chain, e.g. the downstream amplifier's input circuit is "seen" by the DAC's output circuit. This in itself can make the volume settings inaccurate, in addition to having an impact on other aspects of the sound character.

Lastly, although this is probably less of an issue in my opinion, people do want gain on occasion.

smodtactical
How come passives are not more popular? Everyone seems to use active and seems more commonly made as well.

They are, and now going direct because so many sources now have volume controls are taking over from them now. But if you don’t have source volume control passives are the next most transparent/dynamic/uncoloured way of having a volume contrpol.

A Quote from Nelson Pass

“We’ve got lots of gain in our electronics. More gain than some of us need or want. At least 10 db more. Think of it this way: If you are running your volume control down around 9 o’clock, you are actually throwing away signal level so that a subsequent gain stage can make it back up.

Routinely DIYers opt to make themselves a “passive preamp” - just an input selector and a volume control.

What could be better? Hardly any noise or distortion added by these simple passive parts. No feedback, no worrying about what type of capacitors – just musical perfection.

And yet there are guys out there who don’t care for the result. “It sucks the life out of the music”, is a commonly heard refrain (really - I’m being serious here!). Maybe they are reacting psychologically to the need to turn the volume control up compared to an active preamp.”

Cheers George