Thank you for the reply Morten!
There is indeed a sonic difference between the active & passive out, even with the active in parallel.
As most folks have already have experienced, the lack of noise is almost startling! My wife said that the music sounded more real, less processed. I can't describe it better than that. On some recordings I thought there might be just a tad less drive, but on other recordings, the music just seemed to flow more easily. I was struck that some pop recordings that sounded harsh/brash, sounded much less so through the LDR3X. Perhaps less distortion on top of distortion?
Everyone fears diminished bass. The bass was there in full force, but seemed much much tighter.
I thought using the passive outs would mean having to turn the volume up a lot more, but it wasn't really all that much more. It would appear that my system has plenty of gain already! It probably doesn't hurt that my Rogue Medusa has a Zin of 200 Kohms, and my old Moscode 300 a Zin of 274 Kohms.
My old Quicksilver Phono Unit has a Zout of 3 Kohms, so I was expecting the highs to be rolled. I was wrong, everything was there.
Since you've explained the situation, I will have to try the LDR3X with the active stage disconnected.
Does having the active in parallel with LDR3X act as a buffer?
I asked the buffer question before I had seen the numbers you posted!
So, if I disconnect the active stage I will have a better impedance ratio & even better sound than I am experiencing now?
BTW, My LDR3X is V1. It looks like there's a V2 in my future!