Dfel- It's not only the math and ee theory, it's also three other things:
1. No matter how well you understand the theory and do the math, the results are unpredictable.
2. Which means that unless you get really lucky, an internal step-up may not be optimal sonically, even if it is a good match electrically; which then leads to use of an outboard SUT, which requires additional interconnects. Which leads to issue #3:
3. It's my understanding that the step-up property of the transformer not only multiplies the voltage but also "multiplies" (in quotes because I don't think it's an exact relationship) the effect that the cabling has on the sound.
I'm pretty sure 1 and 2 are true, not sure about 3, but since my pre has in active gain stage that works just fine w a LO MC, I'm good to go, w/o math headaches, or trying to remember whether a higher impedance number means you are loading it down more or less, and whether you are matching the output impedance on the output device to the input impedance on the input device or vice versa.
1. No matter how well you understand the theory and do the math, the results are unpredictable.
2. Which means that unless you get really lucky, an internal step-up may not be optimal sonically, even if it is a good match electrically; which then leads to use of an outboard SUT, which requires additional interconnects. Which leads to issue #3:
3. It's my understanding that the step-up property of the transformer not only multiplies the voltage but also "multiplies" (in quotes because I don't think it's an exact relationship) the effect that the cabling has on the sound.
I'm pretty sure 1 and 2 are true, not sure about 3, but since my pre has in active gain stage that works just fine w a LO MC, I'm good to go, w/o math headaches, or trying to remember whether a higher impedance number means you are loading it down more or less, and whether you are matching the output impedance on the output device to the input impedance on the input device or vice versa.