I wonder about this. The battle of the Denmark Strait list that Bismarck/PE had heard pow and hood before spotting them?
Also, the Germans were stated to use hydrophones to avoid torpedo attacks. Did the Germans have better passive sonar?
The RN had the best sonar in the world in 1939, they'd spent a lot of time and money on it. Their hydrophones were good, but not as good as the Germans
Germany invested in better hydrophones. This was sensible, as they wanted U-boats to hear the noise of a convoy from as far away as possible. Their sonar wasn't good.
Better hydrophones would have been useful to the RN, but not nearly as important as better sonar. There's only so much money around.