Thanks Tim!
I wrote that I bought this bass 4 years ago, so I've had a couple of battery replacements - with a fresh battery, there was no significant difference between passive and active mode (EQ flat), and when the battery needed replacement I knew it when the passive mode was even louder then the active..
By P/U gain I assume you mean the amp's input gain (before EQ), because I don't have any level adjustment in the bass' preamp cavity - this is what I wrote about needing to bring the preamp gain significantly high for the level to be adequate at the master output.
About changing the pickup height, tried this also last week when I tried to set up the bass (I couldn't bring it to the condition it was when I got it.. time to take it to a professional tech), but I felt that the sound changed in a way I didn't like (or wasn't used to), so I changed back the height to where it was.
Is there any other advice for me or anything to check out?