Impedance Question: Tube Preamp with SS Power Amp


Having researched this issue with the archived threads, I am still having difficulties understanding the problems of impedance mismatch between Pre and Power amps. As a budding audiophile moving onto my first separates Pre/Power, I want to know more about impedance matching. I have several questions that I hope veterian audiophiles can help me out with.

1)Is the 10:100 ratio between the output impedance of preamp and input impedance of the power amp an absolute rule?

2)What would happen if impedance mismatch do occur? Will the sound be any less satisfying?

3)I understand that Tube preamps generally have higher output impedance values compared to SS, so does that make it problematic to use it with a SS power amp even though tubed preamps are often priased over their SS counterparts?

I ask these questions because I recently purchased a tubed Preamp (Musical Design SP-2B)that has an impedance of 2K Ohms. I want to match that with a SS power amp with an impedance value of 20K Ohms. Am I cutting it too close? (exactlly 10:100 ratio) Or are all of these issues irrevalent and I should just listen to that setup and hear for myself if it would work or not? Thanks in advance for the answers.
speedracerucr
Hovland HP100 into Pass X150. Output Imp. 2K Ohm quoted by Manufacturer but rise to 4700 Ohm towards 20Hz per stereophile test report. Input Impedance of Pass Lab approx 22K Ohm. This yields a 1/10 ratio at most freq but 4/10 at base. Theoretically should lead to base rolloff. In practise, HP 100 does not give up much base comparing to X1 preamp. 1/10 is a only a general rule. If system works, I wouldn't worry about numbers.
(If thread help, don't mind grammar)
You can help stack the deck in your favor by keeping the interconnect cable lengths SHORT. 1 or 2m is fine, but if you had to go to 15 ft of interconnect cable with this heavy of a mismatch, I'd say fuhgedabowdit.
Many tube preamps will also have a higher gain, which can offset any power losses from high output impedance. High frequency roll off can be an issue if the input circuit is shunted with a filtering capacitor (R-C impedance) but amps with resistive only impedance are not affected.
In well designed equipment, all impedances should match. This would give us the greatest power transfer, highest levels of linearity and least amount of signal reflections and the associated ringing that takes place.

Since we aren't dealing with well designed equipment, most manufacturers recommend using an amplifier with a much higher input impedance than the output impedance of the preamp being used. If one doesn't follow that basic "recommendation", the end result is typically a softening of highs and bloated, muddy, uncontrolled bass response. How severe this will be will depend on how stable the source or preamp is. The more stable that device is, the less noticeable these problems will be. In some systems with bright and lean sounding digital sources, the colouration / distortion caused by the improper loading conditions mentioned above may actually help the system to sound more bearable.

By playing games with various interconnects and altering the feedpoint impedance that the source or preamp sees, one can reduce these sonic drawbacks somewhat, but probably not completely correct them. As such, if one wants to "go beyong the territory of recommended guidelines", they have to be willing to "explore new horizons" on their own. That's because each situation / exploration will probably be different from the last and you'll have to "make things work" all over again. As such, get ready to do a lot of cable swapping i.e. "band-aiding" of the system to compensate for the selection of mismatched components. Sean
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Hmmm:
So I'm looking to hook up my AR Ref one MK2 with a pair of Krell 350mc's. Is this a mismatch? Must I do the internal jumper changes that Krell recommends?

Thanks
John