Passive pre with class ''D'' power amps, issues ??

I would join Jonnyb53 with his recommendation. If to use passive preamp then transformer based. I have had good experience with Promethius (spelling...) Ref 3. It was much better (and cheaper) then famed Placette

Still, I wish to point out that not a singke passive preamp was as good as high quality active preamps (I use tubed ones only) not inresoultion and detail - despite many testimonials and never ever dynamic range and bass extension.

Good Luck

Channel Island makes two versions of the same D100 or D200 class D amps: version to work with active preamp (26dB) and version for passive one (32dB).

I don't think a transformer based passive is going to make that much difference here given the gain and input sensitivity of the Bel Canto amp.

The high gain CIA D-200 or D-500 would be a much better candidate to match with a passive preamp. While I have experienced the benefits of transformer based passive designs, one non-transformer design recently caught my attention that I subsequently purchased and that is the Lightspeed attenuator. You can read up more on this uuit at DIYAudio.com. You can buy one pre-built by the original designer for about $350.

I'm using a Bent NOH with Kharma MP-350 monoblocks; flawless performance.

I use a Creek passive attenuator between my RWA modded SB2 that has about 1.25 v output at best and my Cayin TA30 with about 26-28 db gain and it works very well.