Impedance Matching

I use a VAC Standard tube preamp as a 'tube buffer' between my digital stuff and my Bryston BP-26 preamp (to my Bryston 4B-SST² amp.
Even with the extra stage in there it sound spectacular.
And in fact the extra electronics make the CD sound really great.

Check out AUDIO COGNOSCENTI:

http://www.audiocognoscenti.com/blog.html

One of the big issues of impedance matching besides the frequency problems and other issues is the transfer of signal.

Using a very simplistic example.
Using only voltage you have a ratio of transfer. So going from 10k to 10k you would have 50% transfer. Going from 1k to 10k would give you a 1 to 10 transfer ratio and so on. Generally, so you don't have current loading issues and voltage transfer issues, it is best to have a low impedance source to a very high impedance input.

Anything else is tone control to an extent and that is why interconnects make a bigger difference on some systems then others.

No, I would not bother. Too many work around heachaces.

Al, Got another technical question for you. How does an RCA to XLR adapter work? If you connect your high output impedace pre via single ended rca to a low impedance power amp and you use an xlr converter to go into the amp's xlr input, are you getting any benefit from interfacing with with the amps higher input impedance on its balanced in? (Often times it seems that big SS amps balanced-in has a higher specd input impedance)