A passive pre will allow you to listen to your power amp. If you like what you hear, that may be all you need.
If you don’t like what you hear, you might need to add 2nd harmonic distortion to the signal (active pre) to fatten up the sound, add body and dimension, texture....the good seasoning us audiophiles tend to crave.
If your DAC isn’t 2 volts or you have really long cable runs, an active preamp may be required.