Passive sub woofers are an add-on that make sense when your equipment doesn't have a line level sub woofer output. Of course, amplified sub woofers also accept speaker level input with the same problem that passive sub's do ... the need for a passive crossover network which doesn't give you a choice of crossover frequencies, or speaker impedances.
Why would you want to have the sub woofer amplifier separate from the speaker? The amplifiers that are built into powered sub's are matched to the drivers (if the designer did his job right anyway).