IPOD to receiver - newbiw here

A

Al5473

Enthusiast
I bought the Monster icable at best buy to connect my ipod to my receiver. i was told to connect the the cable in the 2 front AUDIO L and R inputs on my receiver. they didnt fit correctly. i had to jam them in...not a good idea i know. i pulled them out and put them in the VIDEO 1 inputs in the back...pretty much the same fit. i can play through VIDEO 1 but its playing in analog not digital, have to turn the volume way up and the music sounds flat. is there an adapter needed for the cable?

what am i doing wrong here?

thanks
 
M

MDS

Audioholic Spartan
You aren't doing anything wrong. Monster Cable has a reputation for too tight rca connectors. It may help if you twist them slightly as you insert them into the jacks. There is nothing special about those cables, other than pretty colors and a high price. I bought the same thing at Radio Shack for $7 and they work just fine.

You have to use the headphone jack on the iPod and the signal it sends is very tiny compared to a normal line-level signal from another device such as a dvd player. You have to turn the volume on the iPod near max as well as turn up the receiver to get any appreciable volume. ANY audio input on the receiver will work.

The iPod does not support digital output and you are connecting to an analog input on the receiver, so the iPod does the conversion from digital to analog and the receiver simply amplifies the signal it is sent.
 
~JC~

~JC~

Audioholic
MDS said:
You have to use the headphone jack on the iPod and the signal it sends is very tiny compared to a normal line-level signal from another device such as a dvd player. You have to turn the volume on the iPod near max as well as turn up the receiver to get any appreciable volume. ANY audio input on the receiver will work.
So would the signal benefit from being fed through the PHONO input?
 
M

MDS

Audioholic Spartan
I don't think it would be a benefit to use the phono input. Given that the phono input is intended for playback of records, the receiver will apply the inverse RIAA curve and that may not sound so good. Connecting the iPod may overload the phono input; I don't know the exact level of the headphone output on the iPod, just that it is not the standard 1V line level. Still it is probably higher than the low level expected by the phono input.
 
SackoHammers

SackoHammers

Audioholic Intern
I once tried the phono input on an older compact type stereo system. I could barely hear the ipod and it sounded very poor.
 
supervij

supervij

Audioholic General
I bought a short cable from Wal-Mart for just a couple of bucks. It has a mini-stereo plug on one end, which hooks up to the iPod, and two RCA stereo plugs on the other end, which I connect to the CD input on my receiver. Sure enough, I do have to up the volume on the receiver to ridiculous levels to get decent volume. It's a low-tech solution, but works pretty well. Not to mention that it sounds just fine. I just have to remember to lower the volume when switching inputs back from the iPod, otherwise I'd fry my eardrums!

cheers,
supervij
 
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