What is the Sound of Impedence Mismatch?


As I understand it, you want your power amplifier to have an input impendence much higher than the output impedence of your preamp, at least 10x. Can anyone tell me what the sonic symptoms are of a mismatch? If I'm hovering around 10x, what might I hear that would indicate an impedence mismatch as opposed to, say, a preamp that is simply too bright or whatever?
Ag insider logo xs@2xdrubin
Nine months later, I still wrestle with these same issues. The First Sound sometimes sounds too dull (or soft) and sometimes it's plenty alive. Honestly, I think it is variability in my hearing that does this. How can it be that one week I'm ready to sell all my tube gear and the next I want to dump the solid state? That's why I still have both.

dan
May I suggest you look up the thread: How to match ohms with amps & preamps
Thank you for the pointer to your earlier post, unsound.

I have a simple multimeter. Is it possible to measure the input and output impedences of my components with the meter? (I ask this because there is no publshed spec for my Pass amp in single-ended mode.)
No need to measure: balanced connections will double the input impedance of your component. This is the drawback to using balanced connections (i.e. differential). You get double the noise cancellation but double the input impedance. The stereo works as a system and what is delivered to your speakers is the system transfer function (input/output). The impact of the input/output impedances on this transfer function are in general small in audio applications. Ideally, you will have a product of the preamp TF and the amp TF (e.g. infinite Zin and 0 Zout), no more and no less. However in the typical case, there is some mismatch and so you get less than ideal - this is the nature of transistor output stages. FET amplifier inputs alleviate this greatly with their high Zin but the problem will forever exist. Capacitance matching is more an issue than resistance actually but this problem is often resolved with good interconnects. Modern design is component-oriented which means the amp is designed by itself and the preamp is also. This is fine as long as you can make them work together independantly. The way you do this is to make Zin infinite and Zout zero. If you are more confused now, email me and I will explain in greater detail.
hey again
Sorry I got my lines crossed on my last post! I meant the problem with the balanced connection is that it doubles the OUTPUT impedance (as well as the input but that is beneficial as I described later on) of the component. I should reread my post before submitting but alas..! Now you must be really lost! ;) Arthur