Preamp & Subwoofer impedance mismatch?

I believe that I heard that JL has new subs with higher input impedance to address this issue.

Good point, but looking at the JL website it appears to apply to the Fathom v2 series (those models having unbalanced input impedances of 50K, although their balanced input impedances are only 10K), but does not apply to the E-Sub series the OP is considering.  And the Fathom models cost considerably more than the E-Sub models.

In the event that I decide to add a active subwoofer crossover, I assume it will essentially act like a SS buffer right? Since both crossover has high input impedance (50K / 100K) and really low output impedance (100 ohms / 150ohms).

Yes.

Good luck.  Regards,
-- Al
 

I use a passive level control of my own design, -10db is about 6.7kΩ in series with the CD player driving a Force sub with 10kΩ nominal impedance in parallel with main amp.

I used it with a Parasound A23 which also has 33kΩ input impedance. Currently driving a NuPrime ST-10 with 23.5kΩ impedance. Measured output is flat in both cases.

See http://www.ielogical.com/Audio/#LastHurrah

However, I would not recommend using the HiPass feature of any subwoofer. IMO 4th order Linkwitz-Riley filter in the very region where the mains are beginning to fade is not the best solution and creates difficult to integrate slope and phase issues, particularly with 3rd party subs. See http://www.ielogical.com/Audio/#Basement. No mention is made of the main speaker capability, but unless they already have substantial low end capability, the lowish 130Hz E112 corner frequencies would give me pause. My experience has found that a simple passive XO for the mains and integrating a sub with higher corner, lower order filters on its own may be a better solution as there is a wider region for ’melding.’ Steep filters can be problematic with a sub and mains cut from divers sonic cloths.

See http://www.ielogical.com/Audio/SubTerrBlues.php for more.