  [abridged] We have assembled a database of stars having both masses
determined from measured orbital dynamics and sufficient spectral and
photometric information for their placement on a theoretical HR diagram. Our
sample consists of 115 low mass (M < 2.0 Msun) stars, 27 pre-main sequence and
88 main sequence. We use a variety of available pre-main sequence evolutionary
calculations to test the consistency of predicted stellar masses with
dynamically determined masses. Despite substantial improvements in model
physics over the past decade, large systematic discrepancies still exist
between empirical and theoretically derived masses. For main-sequence stars,
all models considered predict masses consistent with dynamical values above 1.2
Msun, some models predict consistent masses at solar or slightly lower masses,
and no models predict consistent masses below 0.5 Msun but rather all models
systematically under-predict such low masses by 5-20%. The failure at low
masses stems from the poor match of most models to the empirical main-sequence
below temperatures of 3800 K where molecules become the dominant source of
opacity and convection is the dominant mode of energy transport. For the
pre-main sequence sample we find similar trends. There is generally good
agreement between predicted and dynamical masses above 1.2 Msun for all models.
Below 1.2 Msun and down to 0.3 Msun (the lowest mass testable) most
evolutionary models systematically under-predict the dynamically determined
masses by 10-30% on average with the Lyon group models (e.g. Baraffe et al.
1998) predicting marginally consistent masses *in the mean* though with large
scatter.
