[COLOR=Navy]Amplifiers do not work well if the volume control is kept at very low levels. eg. 9'O Clock position. Input sensitivity of amps tend to be around 150-200mV into 50kOhms. Output by most CDPs is 2 Volts This overloads the amp input and quality suffer. Attenuation of the signal from the CDP is the answer. Attenuation adapters are available to purchase from one or two companies. They look like large phono plugs. They fit on the end of existing cables using a back-to-back female RCA adapter. Rothwell Electronics is one such firm. £39 / pair incl. P&P. 10 dB loss. However, 10 dB loss will not be sufficient in most cases You can make custom attenuated leads for a few pence to precisely meet your requirements. Use Metal Film 2W Resistors and a good quality RCA plug. There is an Excel spreadsheet that will enable to calculate the resistor values and attenuation you need at: [URL]http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/diyattenuation.xls[/URL] It also has a useful a circuit drawing and an attenuation graph. Next task is finding the resistor values that are actually available to purchase. After some experimentation with various attenuation values, I found optimum results with: 39 Kohm Metal Film 2W Resistor, Maplin part no. D39K, 2 off at 17 pence each 12 Kohm Metal Film 2W Resistor, Maplin part no. D12K, 2 off at 17 pence each Other Parts required are: Phono Plugs, Maplin part no. AQ57M, £3.99 for 2 (or de-solder and use your existing phono plugs) Silver Solder, Maplin part no. DP52, £1.49 'One Wrap' PTFE tape, RS Components part no. 314-9372, £1.40 (or use plumbers tape) Solder the one end of both resistors to the signal pin. Solder the 39K resistor to the signal lead and the 12K resistor to the barrel of the plug or the 'ground' part of the lead. Keep everything insulated with PTFE tape. Resistors are too big to fit inside the plug cap. So use heatshrink sleeving to protect. I also use self-adhesive aluminium tape before heatshrink to protect against RFI/EMI. Fit the attenuated plug at the pre-amp end of the cable. Resistor values above will give the following results: Attenuation: 14 dB Effective load resistance: 48,677 Ohms Attenuation factor: 0.1935 If you don't want to modify your interconnect and want to make a separate unit, solder the resistors between the plugand a socket. There are two types of good quality sockets at Maplins. JZ05F/JZ06G (chassis socket) and FA93B/JH96E (inline socket). I used the chassis socket for the pair I made. Bend down the lug with a hole; then thread the resistor wire though the hole in the earth lug of the plug (AQ57M) and the hole in the lug of the socket. Trim off the excess wire. Make sure that the solder runs along the length of the wire where it makes contact.[/COLOR]