Hi @DoubleMIDI, yes, please disregard my comment of impedance matching -- a misconception I had that I hopefully cleared after reading info more carefully. I had thought mic-type connections were impedance-matching, but no, they're still impedance-bridging.
I was just thinking that what could benefit the level is a re-amper like this: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
My reasoning is that it depends on how the input on the power amp in the MAS speaker is designed. If it expects an input like a regular bass guitar amp, raising the output impedance of the Tonedexter (600 ohms I think) to something more like a bass guitar output (few kohms) may benefit the signal (tone, apparent low-end ??). But anyway... I just barely understand the surface of electronic circuits. I have a reamper and used it successfully at church playing pre-recorded bass tracks on a bass amp.
I think the 6 dB difference of XLR vs. 1/4" comes from: on an XLR connector the input device inverts the inverted signal (pin 3) and sums it to the normal signal (pin 2), thereby achieving the cancelation of any acquired EMI noise. The 6 dB comes from the resulting signal being twice the level, ie. 20 * log( 2 ).
So, maybe a impedance transformer that would do that job of inverting and summing could help. Perhaps something like this (though I'm not sure about the resulting output impedances): Impedance Transformer - Hosa Technology, or this: A15BT Bridging Transformer | Shure Americas
