Passive Pre-amp: Improves overall sound quality??

It's funny, I was very very happy until I got a really nice active preamp. My Luminous Axiom blew everything under $1000 out of the water by far, but now that I have a nice active I can actually hear what I was missing---- primarily dynamics. Playing songs at the same volume in the beginning began to piss off my neighbors with the active when they weren't much louder with the passive. I was very happy with my passive and would use it again if I didn't have a job and means to buy something nicer. By the way, I did not like the Axiom at all with my turntable, it never sounded right.

Lets list what a preamp does:

1. source selection
2. voltage gain
3. attenuation
4. buffering (impedance matching)
5. tone control (older preamps,typically)

Now, it is up to user to define his needs,since "the simple is the better" (or Okahm's razor) principle works in audio as well!
I ended removing the 2.,4.,and 5.

When it comes to active preamps Ralph is the only designer I know that adds one more item to the list of what an active preamp should do and that is control the interconnect. As someone who is very passive friendly I can respect this point of view. If an active preamp is "acting" as a tone control then it is a flawed design or designed to perform that way, which in my opinion is wrong headed thinking, or it cannot control the interconnect and its artifacts. Transparency should be the key attribute of any preamp.

BTW I currently use a passive with my analog set up (tape and vinyl) with no issues. That is soon to change though.

While I'll agree with Sam's article about passive pre's I did have a chance to listen to that particular passive unit for several weeks and it was extremely good but I still preferred Steve McCormack's VRE-1b pre-amp and by a wide margin, which by the way only puts out 6dB of gain. There's an axcellent review that just came out here:
http://www.ultraaudio.com/index.php/equipment-menu/284-smc-audio-vre-1c-reference-preamplifier

(Dealer disclaimer)

Marebg, you forgot one of the most important things a great active is needed for.

- great sounding music from a stereo system

At least this has been my experience even when all the stars were aligned perfectly for a passive to shine.