For a large class of integral operators or second order differential operators, their isospectral (or cospectral) operators are constructed explicitly in terms of $h$-transform (duality). This provides us a simple way to extend the known knowledge on the spectrum (or the estimation of the principal eigenvalue) from a smaller class of operators to a much larger one. In particular, an open problem about the positivity of the principal eigenvalue for birth--death processes is solved in the paper.

Corrections are made in this version