I am continuing to enjoy my system in Passive mode for several reasons. I still use the Low Gain mode when just playing music loud to hear throughout the house or a selected disk, and also when I use my HT which drives the mains as fronts through the VAC.

But for normal sitting down listening, I am starting to prefer the Passive mode. I have much more control of the volume at lower levels for one thing. It also sounds more natural and not so in-your-face as with the gain.

It does work out much better with the Counterpoint and Clearfields than it did with the Stratos and Danes due to the impedance and synergy.