o.0 Never knew that!
What volume do you recommend we use for line out? 70%
Just got my new X3 up and running yesterday. Copying my track library over to it now. I'm used to the Fiio X1 where you have to use line out with an amp. Curious now to see how the X3 performs using LO direct with headphones. Going to make sure the volume is turned way down though. Also, going to search for some good resources on getting the full potential out of Rockbox.
.
I love curiosity, and the sheer delight it is to try something different.
A line output is not designed to deliver much curent. A high demand for current, from such an output, will quickly distort the signal.
The voltage peaks at a line output are maxed out for the available circuit headroom. There are industry standards for that. It's usually around 1volt ( peak to peak ) in consumer devices. That's "VERY LOUD", in relation to an equivalent voltage measurement in a heaphone powering output.
The distortion you'll hear in headphones when accidentally plugged into a line out is mainly due to a lack of available current. It just 'sounds' like the phones are getting far too much power, they're actually not getting enough, but because the form of the power is high volt/low current, the effect is that the recieving device ( headphone ) is impacted by a highly dynamic shock and almost instant tail-off. Not unlike a lightening strike during a thunderstorm.
Both the Line-Out heaphones and the lightening bolts have a similar power creation/dissipation characteristic.
I sometimes find people better understand output impedance if they think of it as a sink cold water tap. The voltage is the pressure at the tap and the current is the amount of water flowing through it.
Imagine the tap suddenly exploding due to a pressure shock. It will explode almost identically to many other kinetic explosions, and the decay time almost as quickly too.
That's the extemis of the dynamic involved. a power dynamic.
