[unkoman]

I'm thinking of purchasing an ipod and use a portable amp through the line out, I'm wondering how long will the ipod battery last using the line out with an amp.
Thanks

 

[Bob_McBob]

I've never noticed any difference in battery life when using the line-out.

 

[diablo9]

I haven't test it yet but I assume it's probably the same as you use headphone jack.

 

[unkoman]

Thanks for the reply. I have one more question. Is the 4th gen ipod only one that has a built in line out? I was planning to get the 5th gen (color) but noticed that they dont have lineouts.

 

[warpdriver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by unkoman Thanks for the reply. I have one more question. Is the 4th gen ipod only one that has a built in line out? I was planning to get the 5th gen (color) but noticed that they dont have lineouts.

No..all iPods with a dock connector (including the new Nano) have a line out feature.

 

[Borat]

I never really thought about that when I had my 4th gen iPod. But I noticed that I always turned the internal headphone out volume down all the way just to see if that would make the battery last longer. I doubt it did anything.

 

[unkoman]

Sorry for the bad explanation. I meant does the ipod have a built in line out that does not require the dock. I did some research and found out the sik makes the portable line out for ipods. Yet, is that really "line-out" that doesnt bypass through the internal amp?
Thanks

 

[Borat]

The line out is accessed through the dock connector on 3rd gens and up. You can access it using the Sik (Ram) Din line-outs, the Sendstation PocketDock, or the Apple dock.

But the iPod's line-out is not a "true line-out" because it doesn't bypass the EQ circuitry, only the volume circuitry. Regardless, I think it sounds really good for a portable DAP line out though.

 

[ProleArtThreat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by unkoman Sorry for the bad explanation. I meant does the ipod have a built in line out that does not require the dock. I did some research and found out the sik makes the portable line out for ipods. Yet, is that really "line-out" that doesnt bypass through the internal amp? Thanks

No iPod has a built-in lineout. You either need the Apple dock or a portable dock like the SiK din or Pocketdock. All of these will provide a lineout that bypasses the internal amp.

 

[unkoman]

Thanks for the quick and great help!

 

[warpdriver]

Or use the Sendstation Line Out.

http://www.sendstation.com/us/produc...neout-usb.html

Works with all iPods except shuffle

 

[bangraman]

Shi... I mean unkoman, the bitrates that your songs are encoded are would probably be a far bigger factor in battery drain.


I'm not sure about all this bypassing internal amp business, and also how much of a difference it really makes. I've run an A-B switch test of the 3G iPod Line Out vs the headphone out driving a pair of HD650's and there were no appreciable differences.

 

[gshan]

I'm waiting on this...

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=136420

-I hope OP sells it to the community!

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangraman Shi... I mean unkoman, the bitrates that your songs are encoded are would probably be a far bigger factor in battery drain. I'm not sure about all this bypassing internal amp business, and also how much of a difference it really makes. I've run an A-B switch test of the 3G iPod Line Out vs the headphone out driving a pair of HD650's and there were no appreciable differences.

some have said that the line out is the same as the headphone out at max volume. i don't know if this is true, but it might help explain your test. i remember lindrone or austonia doing one of these tests a while back...

 

[Vinnie R.]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kugino some have said that the line out is the same as the headphone out at max volume. i don't know if this is true, but it might help explain your test. i remember lindrone or austonia doing one of these tests a while back...

Hi kugino et all,

Both the headphone output and the line output come from the same Wolfson codec/dac chip inside the iPod (I am speaking for the 4th gen iPod because I just released a mod for it and had to become familiar with the motherboard). However, they come from separate outputs pin of the dac. For the headphone output, the signal inside the dac passes through a volume control circuit before going out on the headphone out pins of the chip. This is not the case for the line out.

Also, the circuit after the dac is a little different for the headphone out and the line out. The headphone out uses much larger coupling caps in the signal path because when you connect headphones as your load, they generally are low impedance (ex. 32ohm), and you will get bass rolloff if the high-pass filter (RC filter) formed by the cap and load (headphones) does not allow for a low enough cutoff frequency.

IMO, if you are planning to send the output signal to a headphone amp or home audio equipment, it is best to use the line-out. It sounds better to me using the line out, but not significantly better than using the headphone out with the volume maxed out. There is still a lot of crap in the path before getting to the actual jacks (line out or heaphone), and the modification that I perform cleans up this path...

Hope this helps,

Vinnie Rossi

www.redwineaudio.com