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Hi
A properly designed and made passive unit stuck literally on the front of each monitor amp (within say a foot or so) COULD be 'best' as long as the 'source' comes from only one output stage (mixer, D/A or whatever) or from sources that are electrically similar. The main 'downer' is that the physical location puts it on the front of a powered monitor or you have a 'seperate' power amp driving passive speakers sat on your knee. The important thing with a 'passive' control is that there must be an absolute minimum of capacitive loading (length of cable) attached the the OUTPUT of the control. The input is not (or should not) be so much of an issue. You are probably not aware of how much the fequency response of your monitors change with the level control at 'max' compared to 6dB down. In many cases this will be rather more than any supposed change between one opamp or another.
Once you get beyond a simple level control (attenuator) and maybe a couple of source select switches you either have to go into serious mental gymnastics to work out constant loading of all parts (input and output impedances) or much simpler, add a 'buffer' amplifier.
Replacing the input level control on your active monitors with a 'relay' controlled attenuator so that the same control signals can be fed to your speakers several feet apart would be ideal.
Matt S
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