Help with cable choice please?

Don't sweat it. Any good quality interconnect will do the job.

I think it does matter what impedance the cable is no?

Monster cable will work wonders for your set up.

k thanks but I am not looking for a partcular cable recomendation just what impedance the cable should be.

I think your amp's input impedance should be much higher than 100ohms. 10K-100K ohms sounds about right.

The resistance of an interconnect cable does not impact much, if anything at all.

yes Vett93 it is 100k ohms.

Vett93 then why does companies like MIT for example have the choice of different impedances on their cables?

You are making this too complicated. In rare cases there can be major impedemce mismatches between amps and preamps but normally it is not an issue. It is even less of an issue with source components connected to a preamp. In thirty years I've never had a problem caused by an interconnect's impedence.

Sorry, I have never used MIT cables. It seems that you don't have impedance problems if your amp's input impedance is 100K ohms.

does anyone have an answer? I get the feeling I am not the only one that doesn't understand this.

Your question is very important when running from the preamp to the amp. The output impedence of a fixed level CD player is not an issue. While this does not address your question, the fact that the output impedence of your CD player is not referenced in the manual is an indication of the lack of relevance.

Take a visit to the Transparent site and you will get a better feel for this. The impedence loads are going to apply mostly to the speaker cables. There is more newer (and even some older) tube equipment that is getting pretty low while some of the SS amps are getting pretty high. Transparent, and others I am sure, address these situations mostly in their speaker cables, but to a certain degree also in their interconnects (from preamp to amp). The variance in CD players is not going to be enough to justify such a fine tuned cable.

So in the words of other respondents - don't sweat it.

I suggest contacting Joe Abrams (thats his member name as well) as he deals in MIT cables, some of which are designed to accomodate impedance matching. He is a "very" helpful gentleman and I think will help clarify things for you.ATB.

Cable recommendations are very difficult to make as each system is different and what works for one system does not necessarily mean it will work in another system, additionally, everyone has there own tastes as to what sounds best to them. Each of these recommendations are very sincere and I am quite sure it works fine within there systems and they are quite happy. I have always found that the MIT cables have had a particular synergy with what ever system I have owned, It seems to be due to these cables having switchable impedance networks which enable you to match the impedances of your electronics as well as addressing the many additional interactions between your electronics and speakers, enabling you to extract the optimum performance your electronics and speakers are capable of. This correct matching can often make MORE of a difference than changing other pieces of electronics. I suggest you find a dealer who will let you AUDITION the MIT cables within your price range in YOUR system, I am pretty sure you will be quite impressed and your search should be over. In addition, because of our crazy hobby we tend to change electronics quite often in search of the holy grail, one great advantage of the MIT cables is that if you do make a change, you can adjust the impedance of the interconnects to achieve maximum performance with your new electronics, thus saving the cost of a new set of cables to help match your new electronics or speakers. Of course you will probably upgrade to the more expensive Mits, but that is the nature of our hobby.
Mike

I had MITs in the past when you couldn't change the impedance. It is nice now that you can. I was always afraid that box they put on them changes the sound though. I guess I don't understand it but I don't want the signal changed at all (as little as possible).