Active pickups really piss me off, I prefer to use passive pickups with active/passive electronics. That way you can plug any pickup into your guitar and get all the benefits of active pickups plus active EQ PLUS being able to use them in their normal passive state if your battery runs out or you just feel like it.
DiMarzio's are great, but I've always been partial to Duncans. In reality, all pickups are the same after a certain point of quality, it's just a matter of picking one that is tuned to the frequencies and output that you want, that's when you start to notice things that would lead you to prefer one manufacturer over another.