Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Why does ipod music sound horrible in my stereo?

Here is my issue. When ever I plug in my iPod to my receiver via the red and white RCA's the sound coming out sounds terrible. There is excessive bass and the sound is distorded. I have lowered bass on the receiver and in the iPod (settings/EQ). I have also lowered the volume on the iPod, but the music still sounds horrible. I really can't figure it out. My CD's sound great and also the radio good, but it is just that darn iPod

One guess would be compression. If your using a low bitrate on your song downloads it won't sound good on good speakers. CD's are lossless and done in high quality.

Even then, that doesn't really make sense. You get artifacts, but not overinflated bass. Which input are you using--it's not phono, is it?

Are you connecting the cable to the iPod's headphone jack, or are you using the line out via a dock? If you're using the headphone jack, make sure the iPod's volume isn't set much higher than 3/4 of the way up. I find it can overdrive the input otherwise. At least that's how it sounds when I connect it to my car stereo's aux input.

I agree w/ Peter. You can get very distorted sound out of the headphone jack if the volume is very high. You'll get MUCH better sound going through the dock connector.

Ziplinq had a bunch that are pretty decently priced. Or you can use the iPod dock for about $30.

Ditto on what the last 2 guys said.
A dock is FAR better than the earbud jack, but if you have to use it turn the iPod down below half volume.

Yes, I have it connected thru the headphone jack. I will try to see if I can find a dock and see if this helps. I also have the RCA cables connected to the RCA-in for a CD player.

Thank you for all that have replied. Much appreciated.
jj

I borrowed a friends Ipod the other night and plugged it right into my Odyssey amp, sounded great even at full volume.

i think its because of the output(ipod) level too hight or input(receiver)level too low. Since you'd try to adj your ipod, may you have a try to plug your ipod to Aux-input behind your receiver?

Mark