The other day I hooked up one of those Y shaped cables that conversts RCAs to a headphone jack (generic ones from radio shack) to my Panasonic stereo so that i could listen to music from my IPOD, laptop computer, etc in my car. The problem I'm having is that I heed to turn up the volume on the IPOD AND the headunit all the way to get the volume to a normal listening level, (vs. ~half volume for radio and CD's) and when I turn up the IPOD volume all the way, I get lots of distortion, high frequency noise, and no bass response whatsoever.

I have also notice that some MP3's play louder than others, is there some way to modify the files themselves to make them all louder?

Anyone else having this problem? Any suggested solutions?

Thanks,
Ryan

 

to fix the problem with the different volume on the tracks you can turn on the sound check feature on the iPod. other thing you could do would be to get one of those iPod amps.

 

thats happening because of impedence. resistance between the y cable and hte headphone jack. those cables ALWAYS cause impedence even if you get the most expensive one.. ie like 10 dollar for the cable. seriously.. a good fm transmitter will sound better than that.

 

Your problem is actually caused by the Ipod haveing a low output voltage. I run into this all the time at my shop. Unfortunately there isn't a really good fix. What you need is called a "line amp" or a "head amp" or a "Line Driver" which is simply a device that will boost the output voltage of the Ipod. You can get one at www.davidnavone.com.

 

I guess it makes sense that low votlage + high impedance = not alot of sound.
I guess replacing a stack of cd's (easily) with a device the size of a pack of gum really was too good to be true!
I'm just surprised that no one else (that I could find anyway) had written about this problem earlier.

looks like I'll be doing some research on line amplifiers now...
I'm just glad there's nothing wrong with my headunit/ipod/wiring

Thanks for the replies!

 

I'm using a pioneer deck, 4gb ipod mini, and belkin cable (amplified), along with a $2 RCA->1/8in cable. it works great w/o any noise. its all hardwired under my center console.

 

The Pioneer Aux in is very well designed as far as noise rejection goes. It's the units designed to work with factory head units or cheap radios with crappy aux in's.

 

.... getting a pocket dock, http://www.sendstation.com/, for your ipod. this is a line out device that will be independant of the volume level on the ipod, i dont really know how loud it will be(sound quality should be way better than if you are pluging into the hedphone output on the ipod) with the setup you have, but for $30 it might be worth a shot.

 

I have wired my ipod to an alpine (1/8" to RCA then RCA to AI-NET adapter) and now currently to my eclipse aux in using a 1/8" to RCA cord and never had any problems with noise or with the volume level? Try plugging in another device (friends discman or anything) to your cord and see if the same thing happens. Fyi, the volume does usually have to be fairly high on the device, but shouldn't need to be all the way up, when i have my ipod on 85-90% volume on the eclipse and the alpine it is about the same volume as when i put in a cd, but at this level it has never given me audible distortion.