Preamps - Active, passive...???

All I will say is I have the Placette Audio Remote Volume control and it is THE most transparent sound I have heard in my system in 20 years. I believe as long as your system is refined and you use short interconnects fron preamp to amp, Placette Audio passive preamps and volume controls with their vishay resistors are simply the best way to hear everything your system is capable of. It adds nothing to the sound.

Go out and listen to some high quailty pre-amps. Tube,SS, does not matter. After listneing to some of the equipment built by CJ, Krell, ARC, Levinson and (just as important) others, you will give up on the passive fad.

I'm in the same boat as you, have been looking at pre's in the 3 to 6 grand range and the only thing I can find that an active (tube only!) pre can do better is the midrange bloom thing. that's it. everything else is bettered by a passive as cheap as the creek- the placette is probably 10 times better than the creek on top of it all. And the matching concerns are way over-blown in my experience and I'm not just talking about the source driving the amp to full power- forget it - try your cd player directly into the amp and you will have to leave the room! I'm talking about midrange solid immages and presence along with solid bass and perfect soundstaging and musicality (that is;as good as your source and speakers will allow). But taking all this into account weather anyone agree's with me or not, it's still really hard to want to give up any of that midrange bloom even if your amp is a tube amp helping out in that department! I am personally looking for a DAC with tube output and high quality volume knob and skip the pre and if I can't find one I will still do a tube DAC with the Placette passive volume control. Good luck

greatly improved dynamics from an active
better transparency from a passive
only you can decide which your own ears prefer

Bob, aren't dynamics a matter of impedance matching? (output, pre vs. input, power: ratio of 1:10 at least?)