active or passive preamp for active speakers

Passive is not ideal and never will be.

Active is not ideal and never will be. Sorry, had to say it.

Passives are system dependent. Some people select surrounding components around them wisely. Some get lucky. Some, usually the most vocal about it, don't get lucky. Although, if you've seen the length of the Lightspeed thread, passive fanboys aren't exactly passive either. Don't get me wrong, passives are designed to be compatible in most systems. Very basically, the source has to drive the amps with a passive volume control.

With your long XLR's and limited flexibility, you're chance of luck is less than average. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Bent, Goldpoint and Promitheus offering balanced passive models and only one of those has remote control.

BTW, saw a PS Audio PCA-2, one of my favorites, for $800 on the listings.

thanks for the responses.

i guess i don't understand the purpose of the preamp. since my active speakers don't have volume control, it seems the only thing i need a 'preamp' for is volume control, assuming at least that the signal coming for the cd player is strong enough. and if i hook a tuner up too, then it would need to switch between sources.

so why not a passive preamp to do those simple jobs?

I generally don't like passives, but both of my present amps have passive pre amp sections and I've yet to find an active that improves upon their sound. Yesterday a shindo was a disappointment with my torii.

That said, I'm still looking.