[fyleow]

I don't really get line outs. I thought line outs gives the signal without going through the amplifier so you can hook it up to a high quality amp and get better sound. One problem though, the line out from my Nomad Jukebox 3 is louder than the headphone jack at full volume. What the heck? Shouldn't it be almost inaudible? If I drive my HD580s right from the line out it's way too loud.

I think creative just called it the "line out" but it's just something super amplified to allow it to be used with speakers. Thoughts?

 

[DanG]

The difference between the line-out and the headphone jack on many portable players (this applies to MP3 players, MD, CD, etc.) is not necessarily that one is not at all amplified but rather that the headphone jack is attenuated digitally. What this means is that to adjust the volume when you plug into a headphone jack, the sound level is decreased digitally. Whereas with analogue sources (if I understand correctly) noise is reduced with lower levels of sound, digital sources have increased noise. Because of this, it is preferable to allow your amplifier to do the analogue attenuation, not your portable player.

 

[andrzejpw]

they are louder. Ex: my minidisc player. The manual says to set it to max to get a "line level" output level, but it isn't a real line out, since it's still running through the cheapo amps inside. a "real" line out is suppossed to bypass those, right? (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[elambo]

Actually, the difference IS that one has the ability to be attenuated (headphone jack) and the other doesn't (line out). The whole purpose of a line out is just as you said, fyleow - to bypass any type of amplification or preamplification for use with an external amp. If you're able to alter the volume of your line out then it's not a good idea to use that since it's being attenuated earlier in the chain and therefore adding a new sonic character, and probably not a desirable one. A true line out should be constant at a level of -10db for unbalanced and +4db for balanced (a generalization, because not all unbalanced signals are -10 and not all balanced are +4, but typically).

The line out is louder because it's expecting you to adjust that volume with an external preamp and amp. This is normal.