I perefer passive, personally. Active basses that I've played have a too.. articulated tone. It's as if each note is it's own individual entity, while with a passive bass, the notes work together a bit better and seem more like a part of a song as opposed to each being their own individual entity and this allows them to groove a lot better.
IMO, IME, etc, of course.
WOW nicely put!!!!!!!!!!!!!