Hello All! New to the forum so a brief introduction.
I'm a former electronic tech and business owner. I've built guitar tube amps from scratch and worked with SM components when they were first employed in Car Audio and when desoldering stations were few and very expensive. We used to replace micros (96 pins or more if memory serves me) with just a 40W soldering iron and a dental pick. And yes they worked! LOL We did 100% QC on our work.
OK so I really like the thread and all of the info provided.
Some observations and questions:
I have a 4G iPod A1367 EMC2407 supposedly with the Wolfson WM8975 chip. Glass top, Silver Back and VERY THIN.
I use my 4G in a number of ways: Mowing the lawn (earbuds with Ear Protection over them), in the car, background music when my band is on a break and of course for my listening pleasure when I can appreciate some quiet time.
I've read through probably 125+ pages some in detail, some skimming - early, middle, and later posts.
I like idea of using a Direct Out method but have an observation and a question for the engineers or those who have done multiple different mods.
I could have missed this so please accept my apologies if I did.
Can't one just run 2 wires from the DAC out to 2 unused pins on the 30 pin connector, wire an external connector for L,R, and ground and leave the rest of the wiring "As Is" without removing any components OR lifting any pin leads?? A new LOD could be used for an iPod headphone amp, buffer caps if needed for the 2V offset to home audio setup etc. while leaving the original Headphone Jack intact for listening while mowing the lawn and the 30 Pin jack intact for charging and/or visiting a friend who has a standard iPod docking station.. When in a DOC or using the headphone jack the two "unused" Dircect Out pins are "floating" and shouldn't have any effect on the other "out" methods, correct?
My audio theory could be wrong but if there is NO LOAD on the Headphone jack OR the 30 pin connector where the pins normally connect to a doc how could it effect the sound of a Direct Out Line when those components are basically not really in the circuit, unless they're going to ground from the DAC output, they're floating, there's no load terminating those points? No load, no current draw, no electrons flowing as we need to complete the circle for that to happen in those circuits.
Does this sound plausible or am I missing something? I haven't looked at a schematic if there is one available.
Thanks……..