Impedance

You do not need to apologize for asking a question! That's what I'm here for!

Here's the deal with impedance. Whenever you hear the word, it usually implies that devices at each end of the wire should be "matched" to get the best results. You can move the same amout of water in the same amount of time through 2 different nozzles, one with a very small stream at very high pressure - the other through a very large opening at low pressure, right? But they work differently. Something that needs the water's velocity works better with one; something that needs a gentle soaking action works better with the other. Same thing with electronics. 

So the goal is to match the impedance of your MIC to the input impedance of the amp. For some reason I cannot explain, however, with high imepdance mics there is often a 10:1 or even 100:1 difference - the output impedance of the mic is 1K ohm, the input impedance of the amp is 100K. If you are using a "high impedance" mic - use the 10K ohm input. If you are using a low impedance mic use the 50 or 500, whichever works better. 

When we're talking microphones, you really can't hurt anything by connecting it to the wrong input on the amp. It just won't be as efficient - aka, not as loud - and big mismatches may also change the mic's frequency response. Note that the same cannot be said at the other end of the amp - ie., the speaker circuit. There, impedance matching must ALSO happen. Amps can have 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 ohm output impedance - and sometimes offer more than once choice. Connecting an amp's 32 ohm impedance output to a 2 ohm speaker set up (4 8 ohm speakers wired in parallel, for example) could damge the amplifier. 

/Greg