How many quality interconnects to I need ?

In a general sense you want the better interconnects from the source to the pre-amp, the next best from the pre-amp to the amp. With respect to the cost, there isn't a catch-all answer, but for a system such as yours there's no sense in spending much more than $150 on an interconnect. For that price you'll get plenty good performance and you can spend the money you save on upgrading the other components. I can't comment on a particular interconnect that will work best with your system, but there are LOTS of threads on this subject so you should be able to find something of use in them.

Fredman,

These topics appear here every day. The quality of interconnects realy doesn't depend on price. The pricey ones just look nice but offer nearly the same as RadioShack Gold or generic Monster ones. If you apply some little DIY skills you can get parts from www.newark.com MCM brand wire $7/9' + MCM solderless locking RCA with wire clamp you can build yourself interconnect that will have a great performance even less pricey than RadioShack Gold.
If you go this way you will save a tremendous money for music or better components.

If you want to get superior interconnects for only one connection, I would recommend the CDP to preamp. This is because the CDP typically has the weakest drivers and benefits the most from a low-capacitance cable. Next in priority would be the pre to power connection.

try the ICs in different places til you know which you like best.

normally I agree the best IC goes from CDP to pre but in my system I tried both ways and preferred the best IC between pre and power. It was a big difference as well with the preferred way being much more extended and vibrant.

Audioengr: While i would basically agree with your comments, i recently did a cable shoot-out with various interconnects between my SACD 1000 and my Pre-Pro ( Sunfire Theater Grand Mk II ). One set of cables had a total capacitance of 23 pf's per run while another was over 1200 pf's per length !!! Obviously, the majority of cables made will fall somewhere between the two of these with only a few falling below the 23 pf figure.

Quite honestly, the 1200 pf cable did amazingly well in this position. I was expecting "bad things" to take place when it went into the system, but it more than held its' own against everything that i threw at it. I was more than surprised by the results and actually left them in the system as the sound is quite good with this specific combo. I would have never guessed that these would have worked well in this scenario, but.... Sean
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