Can a passive pre-amp feed a powered sub?

I suggest the Carver Lightstar Direct preamp as the only one I know that can do this trick. It has a passive (balanced) half and an active RCA half. You can use a passive input which will also appear at the active RCA outputs, with as much as 22 dB of gain available, if memory serves. It is a superb preamp, and there is one listed for sale at Audiogon.

What is your source? CD? Analog? If there's enough signal to drive your main amp (using the passive preamp), there should be enough to drive the amp on a powered sub. You may need to check the inout and output specs of the components to ensure proper matching, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Thanks for the responses. The source is the latest Camelot Arthur v3.0 mk3 DAC. (which I assume has an output of 2V, but am unsure since it surprisingly is not listed anywhere in the manual) I don't really meed 2 sets of outputs since the amp for the atellites will be feed by the crossover outputs of the sub. The satellites sound much better by cutting out everything below 80Hz.

Not sure you've thought your hookup plans out very well, how do you plan to control the volume on your second amp in your plan? I will say I know nothing about the sunfire sub so maybe I'm confused and your not..I hope it works out for you.

Dave

The output pre-amp is controlled by its volume knob. It feeds the crossover of the subwoofer which splits the signal and send the low pass signal to the subwoofer amp, and the high pass signal to the amp for the satellites. It works fine, and is a fairly standard "satellite-powered sub" set-up. The hookup is currently in place using "spare" equipment, like a Sony P9000ES analog multi-channel pre-amp from my HT/main system set-up as the pre-amp, and a Adcom 2535 /3/4 channel amp (normally for the rear speakers in the HT 5.1 set-up) powering the satellites. The satellites are Mirage Omnistats which hang nicely on the wall in my office and off the desk. (I've upgraded the parts in the Omnistats to make them sound a better -- WBT binding post (the old ones snapped with a heavy pair of spades!), Solen fast caps, Mills resistors, etc. -- they now sound cleaner, more dynamic, and spacious) They are wired with AlphaCore Goertz MI-2 which snakes up nice and flat behind a shelf, besides sounding pretty good. The 9" cube Sunfire Jr. sub fits great and is incredible for its size. Now I need to get the Sony off the desk (replace with a passive?), and replace the Adcom (with tubes, I'm thinking, but I wondering how the passive pre -- crossover/sub -- amp interactions and compatibility will work out, and how to optimize it). Now let's see, maybe Kora Galaxy, SF Power 1, Rogue 88 Magnum, something from Blue Circle??