Line-Out Cable for iPhone That Works? Microshar Claims to Have It

[NewMexiCat]

For those of you (like me) who have been waiting patiently for a quality line out cable that will work with iPhone, please see Microshar's website.

This is the first passive line-out cable (not a powered speaker dock or a powered car audio cable) that claims to work with iPhone. I e-mailed Microshar and they assured me that the cable has been tested with iPhone and works great. While the website bills the cable as a car audio solution (with a 25" length), Microshar will let you specify a shorter length for a portable amp. They do not recommend going shorter than 4" due to the limited flexibility of the large cable.

I ordered one today and will report back with the results!

[ingwe]

Originally Posted by NewMexiCat

For those of you (like me) who have been waiting patiently for a quality line out cable that will work with iPhone, please see Microshar's website.

This is the first passive line-out cable (not a powered speaker dock or a powered car audio cable) that claims to work with iPhone. I e-mailed Microshar and they assured me that the cable has been tested with iPhone and works great. While the website bills the cable as a car audio solution (with a 25" length), Microshar will let you specify a shorter length for a portable amp. They do not recommend going shorter than 4" due to the limited flexibility of the large cable.

I ordered one today and will report back with the results!

Thank you! Hopefully you will be able to reverse engineer the thing without trashing it.

[NewMexiCat]

Originally Posted by ingwe

Thank you! Hopefully you will be able to reverse engineer the thing without trashing it.

Given the price of this thing, I'm not sure I want to do any surgery on it. If it works and sounds good, I'm happy.

[bhd812]

well people claim it works with docking stations that charge and give line out.

so the iphone has to be fooled into thinking there something with the charging/power pins going on as they will be the only pins not used or soldered in a line out dock (tb2,alo,etc).

or the docking stations that work also use pin 21 as a way of communcations (remote volume from the dock as an example).


but hell i dont even know what i am talking about...still its really dissapointing that we on headfi have a market for ipod docks costing $10-$200+ yet not one company has atleast come out with anything to work the iphone yet.

i said this before either its a software or pin change on apples part or laziness by the fancy dock makers where they are waiting for someone else to find the solution and use it...

if docking stations and cars are working with the line out from the iphone then it must not be a apple issue (if it was a pin change or software).

so how does one dock work but our fancy line outs dont? there has to be pins needed in the iphone tha where not needed before to use audio out..
what pins and how do you fool your iphone into thinking those pins are hooked into something else..if needed...

again i dont know what i am talking about..just thinking...

[Britbonic]

Very frustrating sitting here looking at my pile of line out connectors - Slik, ALO silver, Turbodock, Slik and Sendstation and not one of them works with my iPhone! Since the iPod works in my Volvo adapter and in a couple of docks I've tested, it's gotta be that there needs to be a connection to some sensing pin that turns the line out pins on. I don't think they've changed the pin out. Seems like this would be pretty straightforward.
The iPhone has become my primary iPod these days and it really sucks not to be able to use my Tomahawk and Portaphile when listening with good headphones.

[soloz2]

I had hoped to pick up an iPhone last month when it was time to go phone shopping, but I just couldn't afford one... so I got a blackberry instead. But, I had wanted to make a headphone adapter and LOD for the iPhone as well... I just don't have one to play around with!

Apple does have a new iPod and I'm wondering if the dock will work on that, or it'll be the same as the iPhone.

Regardless I do have my theories on how to get a dock to work. I'm thinking it might be as simple as using a resister to get the iPhone to recognize the dock in a similar manor to what is used in the ZV:M docks. Sadly, I'll have to wait a while before I can test my theory.

[NewMexiCat]

soloz2: The price of the iPhone just dropped $200! Go for it!

Britbonic: I'm hoping to have my line out cable from Microshar tomorrow. Let's hope it is a solution to our frustration, albeit a rather expensive one! Oh well, I just paid a $200 premium for the privelege of getting first hand experience with two months of iPhone bugs!

[soloz2]

Originally Posted by NewMexiCat

soloz2: The price of the iPhone just dropped $200! Go for it!

Britbonic: I'm hoping to have my line out cable from Microshar tomorrow. Let's hope it is a solution to our frustration, albeit a rather expensive one! Oh well, I just paid a $200 premium for the privelege of getting first hand experience with two months of iPhone bugs!

Actually I was on the Apple store this morning, looking at the iPod Touch but didn't even look at the iPhone prices! My wife just emailed me saying that with the price drop that we can maybe talk about me getting one! although, the DVD player just died and we don't have $ to buy a $240 Toshiba HD DVD player so I'm not sure how we'll find $ for an iPhone... damn student loans!!!!


but anywho, I speculate the release of a 16Gb iPhone in the very near future... like after you can actually get the 16Gb iPod Touch

[NewMexiCat]

Well, my Microshar cable came in today and I quickly gave a try only to find that it behaved like every other line out cable I had tried with iPhone--no sound through the cable and all sound routed to iPhone's internal speakers.

The unfortunate part of all this is that Microshar assured me prior to my order that the cable had been tested with the iPhone and worked great. They also claimed that they had sold several already with no issues. Anyway, i have e-mailed them and unless they can provide some sort of "fix", the Microshar cable is not the solution for Head-Fi iPhone owners. Sorry!

[i has a can]

apple is giving people $100 credit for those shafted by the iphone price drop..

[soloz2]

Originally Posted by NewMexiCat

Well, my Microshar cable came in today and I quickly gave a try only to find that it behaved like every other line out cable I had tried with iPhone--no sound through the cable and all sound routed to iPhone's internal speakers.

The unfortunate part of all this is that Microshar assured me prior to my order that the cable had been tested with the iPhone and worked great. They also claimed that they had sold several already with no issues. Anyway, i have e-mailed them and unless they can provide some sort of "fix", the Microshar cable is not the solution for Head-Fi iPhone owners. Sorry!

quite honestly I'm not surprised! take a look at Dara_D's responses when we questioned the quality of their amp here:
are good PCDP's still being made?

[DLeeWebb]

Originally Posted by Britbonic

Very frustrating sitting here looking at my pile of line out connectors - Slik, ALO silver, Turbodock, Slik and Sendstation and not one of them works with my iPhone! Since the iPod works in my Volvo adapter and in a couple of docks I've tested, it's gotta be that there needs to be a connection to some sensing pin that turns the line out pins on. I don't think they've changed the pin out. Seems like this would be pretty straightforward.
The iPhone has become my primary iPod these days and it really sucks not to be able to use my Tomahawk and Portaphile when listening with good headphones.

Apparently the iPhone doesn't work with the ALO Jumbo Cyro dock line-out. Can you damage an iPhone by just connecting one?

[skyline889]

Originally Posted by soloz2

quite honestly I'm not surprised! take a look at Dara_D's responses when we questioned the quality of their amp here:
are good PCDP's still being made?

I'm not really that surprised either. I'm not sure I'd want to do business with a company that charges $200 for a silver plated copper LOD or makes an LOD out of sterling silver.

On a more positive note, ALO seems to have created an LOD that works with the Iphone. It seems Apple made the dock out quite a bit more complicated than the current line of standard Ipods. Got to give some credit to Ken, he is always leading the pack in terms of LODs!

[soloz2]

Originally Posted by skyline889

I'm not really that surprised either. I'm not sure I'd want to do business with a company that charges $200 for a silver plated copper LOD or makes an LOD out of sterling silver.

On a more positive note, ALO seems to have created an LOD that works with the Iphone. It seems Apple made the dock out quite a bit more complicated than the current line of standard Ipods. Got to give some credit to Ken, he is always leading the pack in terms of LODs!

I don't see anything on Ken's site. I'm pretty sure I can make a dock, just haven't gotten my hands on an iPhone for long enough to test though. I'm pretty sure if I don't get one today I'm going to order from apple.com this weekend though.

[skyline889]

Stax SR404 > OmegaII

I think it's going to be a little harder than you suspect.