[Hellacious D]

I've noticed, after reading many posts, that one of the biggest complaints about an otherwise good player is the lack of a line out. First of all, does a line out have to be a separate jack? On my sony hd5, you can turn on a line out mode in the option menu. Unfortunately, this just makes it sound distorted and really loud with my stock earbuds. What are the advantages of having a line out? I would think you could just use a mini to mini cable to connect an amp, and then hook your headphones up to the amp. I don't see how you'd need line out to do this.
Thanks for the help,
Jeff

 

[RedLeader]

I'll let someone else give a more full technical explanation, but in the basic sense a line-out generally bypasses all of the headphone electronics. Op-amps, potentiometers, etc. There is nothing to attenuate the sound, hence the loud volume. This also means a cleaner signal path, so it is generally considered to have higher sound quality.

 

[Hellacious D]

Can anyone explain why the line out option on my hd5 sounds terrible?

 

[kramer5150]

The line out is used when you want to add an amp for your power hungry headphone. The idea is to bypass the players internal headphone amp circuit. Many times (but not always) the internal headphone amp can color the sound, compress the dynamics and alter the spectral image. In severe cases the internal headphone amp can cut out frequency bands all together (ipod at 16 ohms for example).

So... if it is a severely colored headphone out that doesn't have the power to push the headphone, you are going to want a "dry / unamped" signal to amplify externally.

i find the headphone outs on many of my vintage PCDPs too colored for my tastes, so I run the line out into my mint.

Theoretically if the headphone output is as clean and dynamic as the line and does not color the sound... you can use it to feed your amp. But from what I have found the line out is more true to the recording.

Not a silly question at all.

Garrett

 

[Hellacious D]

Hmmmmm, maybe it's because I'm maxing out my cheap earbuds. That would explain it.

 

[ILikeMusic]

It's not a silly question at all. The standard answer is that the headphone output has an additional stage of amplification and in theory this could potentially add some distortion to the signal vs. a line output. In reality however this is not very likely to occur with modern players that have distortion figures so low as to be inaudible (as long as the amp isn't stressed.) You are not likely to hear much if any difference between a line out and a headphone output as long as the volume setting is kept low. People do like to make an issue out of it though.

 

[nickd75]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hellacious D Can anyone explain why the line out option on my hd5 sounds terrible?

Don't, whatever you do, attach earbuds to the lineout on an HD5 and then put them in your ear. As someone has pointed out (very helpfully - I didn't know), the headphone-out attenuates the signal a lot, reducing it to listenable levels. The lineout, on the other hand, hasn't had any kind of reduction of the sound, and so could damage your headphones/ earbuds/ ears. I've done it a couple of times (by accident) and don't want to do it again.

Nick

 

[munkong]

IMHO
line out in portable is not like line out in Home system
line out in ipod is fake, it's the same or nearest headphone out
line out in ipod increase loud signal
and fix it at a position
but not cut EQ or sound's adjust