[Bassix]

Alright, so last year in school, I lost my ATH M50's (not sure if stolen or lost, just got home one day and realized they weren't in my bag somehow). Well I had a FiiO E11 portable amp to go with it because I listen to rock, and prefer my bass slightly louder than it is on M50's, despite its already loud and punchy bass. Well, I got new headphones, just some crappy $20 pair that are really comfortable, but lack loudness and bass. Well along with my ATH M50's I had lost the small 3.5mm male to male connector and I never replaced it due to not having headphones. Well now I want to use the amp again, but I have no connector, so I had a simple solution, use a 3.5mm male to male from my old speakers (green connectors, used a lot). Well, the only problem is, I've tried with 3 separate cables, and the sound fades in and out, and the left headphone plays close to no sound (it has sound, just extremely little). My friend's FiiO E11 cable works perfectly with mine, but he needs it. Is there any reason why the long green cables wouldn't work? Also is there a place where I could a replacement FiiO E11 cable, or a similar short one so I don't have long wires hanging out of my pockets?

Thanks in advanced! =)

 

[RUMAY408]

You can get a replacement for less than $10 on Amazon.  FiiO products are different I had issues with my E5.  Couldn't get the cable to fully insert and thought if I pushed too hard I would break it. Finally after a struggle I was able to get the cable to go in and it worked fine from then on.  I never have had an issue with my E11.  The L LOD Connector if your using an IPOD is defintly better sound for me than the male-male connector. 

 

[Bassix]

Quote:

You can get a replacement for less than $10 on Amazon.  FiiO products are different I had issues with my E5.  Couldn't get the cable to fully insert and thought if I pushed too hard I would break it. Finally after a struggle I was able to get the cable to go in and it worked fine from then on.  I never have had an issue with my E11.  The L LOD Connector if your using an IPOD is defintly better sound for me than the male-male connector. 

I found what an L LOD connector is, but I'm still quite unsure of its benefits or anything of that sort. Also, I don't use an iPod Touch, I use a iPod Nano 3rd generation
(http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1353#ipodnano3)
I'm unsure whether a L LOD connector would work correctly with it or not, seeing at the L LOD connector says it's for iPod Touch and iPhone.
 
http://www.amazon.com/FiiO-Cable-Stereo-Right-Angle/dp/B005EV38AE/ref=sr_1_28?ie=UTF8&qid=1350067237&sr=8-28&keywords=FiiO
Is that the correct cable I would need if I just wanted the original one it came with?

 

[TrollDragon]

The benefit of the LOD is that the audio is at Line Out level, you control the volume from the E11, the click wheel on the iPod does not affect it. Also you are bypassing the headphones amp built into the iPod and coming straight out of the audio chip (to put it in very basic terms)
 
I use a homemade LOD on my 3rd Gen Nano with my E11 and it works like a charm, I didn't want to have to fiddle with dual volume controls when using the FiiO L8 cable!
Get the LOD you'll be happy you did.
 
Right Angle
http://www.amazon.com/FiiO-L9-L-Shaped-Cable-iPhone/dp/B004QVNNI0/ref=pd_cp_e_0
 
Straight
http://www.amazon.com/FiiO-L3-Line-Cable-iPhone/dp/B003UCESP8/ref=pd_cp_e_3

 

[Bassix]

Quote:

The benefit of the LOD is that the audio is at Line Out level, you control the volume from the E11, the click wheel on the iPod does not affect it. Also you are bypassing the headphones amp built into the iPod and coming straight out of the audio chip (to put it in very basic terms)
 
I use a homemade LOD on my 3rd Gen Nano with my E11 and it works like a charm, I didn't want to have to fiddle with dual volume controls when using the FiiO L8 cable!
Get the LOD you'll be happy you did.
 
Right Angle
http://www.amazon.com/FiiO-L9-L-Shaped-Cable-iPhone/dp/B004QVNNI0/ref=pd_cp_e_0
 
Straight
http://www.amazon.com/FiiO-L3-Line-Cable-iPhone/dp/B003UCESP8/ref=pd_cp_e_3

Few questions again, with the audio at the Line Out level, does that mean I can't use the amp to turn the volume up past the volume the iPod can normally go like I could if it came directly out of the headphone jack?

Also, does the LOD do anything that's exactly different from the regular 3.5mm jack? I know you said it comes straight from the audio chip, but what does that even mean?

 

[RUMAY408]

1st question:  You get significant more volume using the LOD out of the amp,  it goes way past the volume of the IPod.  I use the right angle LOD (L).  
 
2nd question:  The audio chip from the amp delivers much better sound than what the IPod can deliver on its own. 
 
I'll defer to Trolldragon to answer how that chip does what it does.

 

[TrollDragon]

Hey Bassix!
 
The output of the headphone jack is designed to drive headphones, and doesn't necessarily output the proper signal level for the external amplifier.
Since the headphone output is already amplified, connecting it to the input of the external amp leads to "Double Amping" and can induce noise and over modulation.
 
e.g. If I turn the iPod's volume control to maximum so I get a distorted output, that is whats called clipping. The clipping is when the audio signal starts to square off at the top of the wave form and sound becomes distorted. Now if you take this clipped signal and connect it to the input of an external amplifier, you are now starting to amplify an already distorted signal. It does not matter how much you adjust the volume of the external amp the sound will be distorted. So you have to tun down the volume control on the iPod till it doesn't distort and your fiddling with two volume controls.
 
When you use the Line Out feature of the 30 pin connector on the bottom of the iPod, you are getting a proper impedance line level signal that is matched to the external amplifiers input circuit. This line out signal is at a constant voltage well below clipping levels and is not affected by the extra components in the iPods headphone out circuitry. This will give you a better sound and only one volume control to adjust.
 
*Note the inputs and outputs of the E11 and the iPod are very forgiving in their levels and impedance, so the information above it only a basic generalization of the difference between headphone out and line out.*
 
The main reason I suggested the LOD was for the ease of use with only 1 volume control to operate and a better sound.
 

 

[Bassix]

Thanks a bunch guys, explained it perfectly, I ordered an LOD and it'll be here Tuesday, super excited