Signal degration over length, source vs. output ?

I agree with what El and Kr4 are saying in terms of low output impedances being highly beneficial to this situation, but El is tossing out statements about long mic cables while forgetting to mention that these are all primarily runs of balanced / xlr cables. BIG differences in performance between xlr's and rca's on a long run.

Corona: If music consisted of a series of non-distorted sinusoidal waveforms, your comments would make more sense. Since it is quite possible to have notes that are not of equal amplitude / duration in positive and negative attributes, "diametric opposition" or having an "AC flywheel" doesn't come into play quite as much or as linearly as one might think. Then again, i might be misinterpreting what you are saying as you tend to "fly" with your "cloaking devices" pretty well maxed out.

Having said that, I do agree with your comments pertaining to field contamination. I have tried to get this point across to Audioengr in terms of shielding of cables only being bad when it is improperly applied. You may / may not agree with this, but judging from what i think you're getting at, i think that you would agree. Sean
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speaking of 8...10' you loose almost nothing with longer speaker cables.

Kr4...I didn't know that you could get 50 ohms output impedance with a tube output stage (usually a 12AU7 cathode follower: 600ohms). What kind of preamp do you have, and did they slip in a transistor line driver?

sean...Yes: balanced lines are better for long runs, but that's another discussion. I only meant to suggest that a long run of low level signal is not the end of the world.

Sonic Frontiers Line3. Output impedance 45ohms SE, 90ohms bal.

Kr4...Your SFI preamp looks like a nice unit. They confim that the output stage is "parallel tube with feedback" (not a transistorized line driver as I suspected) providing output impedance which they agree is low for a tube preamp. Looks like you get any tube advantages without one of the drawbacks.