Passive preamp recommendation to my system

I would agree with a Krell amp it is a waste of time and money and good amp.

I think it would work, but I also prefer passives with tube amps over SS as a general rule. With a Krell amp it might not be ideal, to say that passives in general are a waste of time of money -- well I don't know what to do that, not my experience at all, but they are all so cheap that most anyone can try it and decide for themselves, though I would advise a tube amp with 100kohm input impedance, I think the system benefits from tubes in the chain, expecially with a passive - at least for my taste.

Another vote for the Lightspeed.

Promitheus Audio is in your price range. Not as sophisticated as the Bent units and no remote control. Did have some trouble a while back with keeping up to orders after losing some employees but that should be better now.

I hookup my old sony cdp x55es direct to the krell and sounds pretty good .