Will a male to male cable work the same as a LOD with an ipod

When you're using an amp besides your ipod, you'll need a LOD the bypass the amp inside the ipod. The signal that the 3,5mm jack gets from the ipod is amped by the iPod and amped twice by your own amp, that's not the way. I think you also need the Y cable, because you have two outputs (red-white). I've never seen such a LOD, but maybe toxic cable can make one for you.

I've been doing a lot of searching on this issue myself. From what I gather if you have an amp, the line out audio signal is far superior to the signal that comes out of the headphone jack after it runs through the iPod's own internal amplifier.

 

If you use a line out dock, you get a cleaner analog signal to run to your amp.

 

For your RCA out issue the link below may solve your problem.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Line-Out-Audiophile-cable/dp/B004OV5E3Y/ref=sr_1_51?ie=UTF8&qid=1342552295&sr=8-51&keywords=ipod%2F+iphone+audio+line+out+dock

The most basic LOD will beat the most expensive 3.5 to 3.5mm interconnect.

 

The exception is with the iMod where it's rewired so that the line-out comes out the top.

as stated, using the LOD wold be the way to go.  The head-phone out is a headphone out and not a line out.
 

Again, line out is the way to go for a clean signal.  If you have a mini to mini that you love and don't want to part with you can use this:

 

That's a very nice solution if you want to use a mini to mini. I'm more an adorer of the LOD cable, because you can bypass you iPod and let the amp do the hard work. But that's just me.

If you want to do a little DIY, you could make a LOD to RCA cable with no intermediate steps. Just run 2 ground wires rather than 1 that you could do with a TRS, and connect the RCAs as usual after that.

I think the answer to your question is, "No".

 

Just get a LOD like everyone suggests. There's a reason why people suggest it! TBH, I didn't notice a difference, but that's just me.