Zune 30 hooked to stereo- not good

[murrsue]

Every year I play music for my crew at our campground at a 4 day classic rock festival. I take a generator, my high quality Akai amp (circa 1977!), a componenet cd player and speakers. This year I thought I'd get with the times and take my new Zune 30 and hook it to the stereo like I've seen others do with their ipods. I bought an earphone to 2 RCA connector cord from Walmart and hooked it to my aux in on the amp, the same place I put the CD player. Sounded all right but I'm not geting the volume the cd player gets, even comparing the same song downloaded and ripped to the Zune and onto a CD I have to turn the volume up pretty far on the stereo, further than I'm comfortable doing. I'd say the Zune has 2/3 the volume of the CD player with the Zune turned up all the way. I have the eq on "rock" and didn't try other eq settings. Any ideas??

[Charge]

The CD player has a built in amp which amplifies more than the Zune does. All I would imagine you need to do is stick another amp in there somewhere >.< Or just keep turning it up really high.

[murrsue]

I don't have a CD player. It's a component CD player, a part of a stereo system and it has no amp and is useless unless you plug it into an amp.

[zachnehrenberg]

Does the CD player have a wall plug? I'm guessing it does which allows it to output the sound at a much greater volume than the Zune, which is intended for personal listening. Just turn the speakers up more. Nothing bad will happen.

[roebeet]

The Zune 30 ouput is 30 mW per channel (estimated at 16 Ohm, I believe). MP3 players, in general, are designed to power low impedance headphones.

You already have an amp, but I'm assuming that you are just used to the output of the CD player. Its output is probably higher than the Zune, so it's always going to sound louder to you. You'll have the same issue with most other MP3 players on the market - one exception is the Cowon D2, whose power output is slightly higher (37mW per channel at 16 Ohm).

I use a headphone amp for my high impedance cans, as well as connecting my MP3 player to my stereo system.

[Berty]

its exactly what zach said

the cd player is plugged into the wall, it can generate a lot more volume (as it is intended to)

a mp3 player is only supposed to give off a little bit of volume (a. cause thats all it needs to, and b. it gives off little power so u dont kill your batterys life)

[roebeet]

Originally Posted by Berty

its exactly what zach said

the cd player is plugged into the wall, it can generate a lot more volume (as it is intended to)

Not exactly. You can plug an MP3 player into the wall as well, but that doesn't change the headphone output. It's not about power coming in as much as it is the power going out. The OP should check the output of the CD player vs the Zune, and this will show why the volume levels are different.

Here's another example: A turntable, which plugs into a wall socket, also requires either a preamp or a receiver to boost the output.

[Berty]

well yeah thats wat i meant, even if zune is plugged into the wall, it will still ouput little power

i meant more like the cd player has the power so it gives it out, zune does not, so it gives out a little