Turntable and a Passive pre?

I use an Art Audio Vinyl One that has a built in passive attenuator and hook it up directly to my amplifier. One less set of interconnects/connections makes for better sound.

You probably could wire an attenuator to the EAR and forget about the passive pre.

I am using a custom preamp designed and built by Kevin Carter @ K&K Audio. It is a two chasis design with an outboard PS for Kevin's excellent MC phono stage. For attenuation I am using a pair of the Mark I version TX-102 transformers. I have two other inputs which I use for my tuner and my digital front end. This is the best preamp I have ever had in my system, bar none. But my point is that a well designed tube phono stage with enough gain(I have about 72db for my 0.3mV cart.) can work exceedingly well with a passive device. I have all the volume and dynamics I could ever ask for, and the phono stage is as quiet as most SS devices, minimal tube rush even at very high settings.

Oz

Check to see how "sensative" your amp is and compare it the output voltage of the phono stage. I run passive also with an amp that has a sensativity of 1.2 volts to drive it to full output. My phono stage output is based on the output of the cartridge itself. I use a 2.2 mV high output MC cartridge and I am fine volume wise. If I had a 4mV grado, I could probably shake the walls, but no need to as I value my hearing. Also, the sensativity of your speakers will be a factor as well.

R.

I'm in a similar situation. Tomorrow I will receive a Bent NOH transformer based passive.
Passives don't like sources with high output impedance, but with a solid state phono stage, this won't be a problem.
More important is the gain level of the phono stage.
If you can manage to get a signal which is close to the cd level, you should be fine...