Running Active Speakers - Neophyte Needs Advice

Without thinking it through, a fellow Audiogon member, who happened to be in the same town, had some Quad 12L Actives for a good price and I took the plunge. Only now do I realize that I don't know how to run them properly and need suggestions about the best price/quality method. By standards here, I'm on a very low budget. Space limitations suggest these speakers should do double duty for two channel stereo and DVD's. There's one RCA input and one balanced XL input on the back of each. Powered on, they are silent at any volume, but I've already noticed that RCA lines from my CD player create a very low hum, a concern I hope can be rectified.

Is a preamp mandatory? Will the speakers overload if I (can?) hookup an AV receiver while I'm deciding how to proceed?

As part of this hi fi upgrade, I would spend in the ballpark range of, say, $1K to get the right equipment: Quad 99 preamp? Quad 24 preamp (tubes, etc.)? Quad 99 CDP-2 that may (?) also hook into a DVD player? Other/cheaper alternatives? A cusory look into balanced output preamps makes me think I've stumbled way out of my preferred price points.

Otherwise, I'll just try to resell them and go to 12L passives. Thanks!!