Connecting your Car Amp directly to an Ipod?

[gpiejai]

i was wondering if there was a way for me to connect my 4-channel speakers amp directly to an ipod? like instead of using a car stereo deck can i just find some wires for me to connect the ipod directly to the amp?

Click to read more...

 

[Crodski 10+ year member]

make one urself?

 

[budahbuddy803 10+ year member]

if it has an "input" female input. haha probably not though.

or maybe like something from the ipod going from headphone to rca i think would work. then you still need a remote wire problem.

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

i was wondering if there was a way for me to connect my 4-channel speakers amp directly to an ipod? like instead of using a car stereo deck can i just find some wires for me to connect the ipod directly to the amp?

yes. get an adapter that has a headphone jack on one side and rca's (male) on the other. connect it to the input on the amp.

 

[Crodski 10+ year member]

wonder if sound quality would be improved or just stay the same?

 

[97cavy 10+ year member]

Maxxsonics makes a unit that does this

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

wonder if sound quality would be improved or just stay the same?

probably not as good.

 

[miker 5,000+ posts]

I have a 3.5mm to RCA cable..

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

You still have to worry about the crappy SQ of the headphone amp on the iPod. The docking cable has the best output signal quality. Something that could use that would be your best bet if you want it to sound as good as it can.

 

[tiptop 10+ year member]

wouldent that destroy the ipod?

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Some of the replies in here scare me, honestly...

When I was switching around preamplifiers last year I tried this with the monoblocks and an Ipod Shuffle...while the preout voltage is adequate, why would you want to? You're losing all the benefits of a preamp, such as easy volume control, input switching, any EQ/processing ability...and it's not like the sonic benefits are that great because you're still talking about MP3's.

I'm all for reducing the number of components in the signal chain, but it's garbage-in, garbage out. Can't get around that.

 

[UCF52 10+ year member]

Not that I know what I am talking about, but does it matter that the iPod (IIRC) uses a 12-bit DAC and a headunit uses a 24-bit DAC?

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

^^^No. Many HUs and other CD players use a 1bit DAC.

 

[UCF52 10+ year member]

^^^No. Many HUs and other CD players use a 1bit DAC.

So what does the bit rate for the DAC mean? I have always wanted to know this...

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The bit rate isn't that big a deal. It's just how big a chunk of the data stream that the DAC converts at once. There are good designs that cover the whole spectrum. By the time you get a system perfect enough to worry about the DAC you'll have many thousands invested. Start the car and once again it won't matter.