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.
