[ApertureFoto]

Hello everyone,

I am having some major audio problems with my mini in my car. While I do not have my in dash screen yet, I hooked everything up and used my 17" flat panel sitting on the passenger floorboard.

Here is a quick down and dirty of the setup.
1.42Ghz Mac mini (256RAM, 80GB) stock from my local Apple store.
2005 Hondac Civic Hybrid with the *stock* factory cd player....that is hooked up to a HOM98-AUX PIE adaptor to give me RCA preouts.
The preouts plug into a Soundbridge AUX3 which splits the preout and give me 3 powered preouts that is controlled via a dash mounted rocker type switch.
I have my XM radio hooked up to one the main preout....my iPod hooked up to preoutA and nothing hooked up to preoutB. (preoutB is where I plan on hooking the mini up to). To save a little time I unplugged the plug from the back of my iPod dock (which is plugged into preoutA) and plugged it into the headphone out of the mini.
All of a sudden I get this horribly loud hissing sound and can barely hear any audio at all.....hmm. The iPod when plugged in with this cable plays flawless....however when switching the plug into the mini hissing...

I figured that *maybe* the mini wasn't giving me a good quality audio output so I headed over to my local CompUsa and purchased a Griffin iMic. (even though the preout is powered by the Soundbridge AUX3).

I then hooked up the iMic to the mini and then to preoutA....same results. Very lound hissing and very poor low audio out of the mini. I tried hooking up the iMic a few different ways??? Always with the same results.

can anyone help me out maybe as this is driving me nuts....

Thanks

Kris
kris -at- aperturefoto.com

[chrisuso]

Try grounding the system. That would probably work, test it out on headphones from the Mac mini.

Let me know if it works out.

[ApertureFoto]

How else would I ground the system?

I have the HON98-AUX grounded, as well as having the Soundbridge AUX3 grounded.

Kris

[jasonsRX7]

Have you tried taking the soundbridge out of the equation and going straight from the mini into the PIE? Is your PIE converting the external cd changer inputs into preouts? I used to have a PIE FRDN-AUX giving RCA preouts from my changer inputs, which I used with a Belkin iPod auto kit. The only noise I experienced was some mild engine noise if the gain was set too high on the Belkin. Have you tried bringing the levels of the mini down, and bringing the head unit up?

[turtle777]

Radioshack is your friend (for once )

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...t%5Fid=270-054

-t

[SmileyDude]

Originally posted by ApertureFoto:
my iPod hooked up to preoutA and nothing hooked up to preoutB. (preoutB is where I plan on hooking the mini up to). To save a little time I unplugged the plug from the back of my iPod dock (which is plugged into preoutA) and plugged it into the headphone out of the mini.
All of a sudden I get this horribly loud hissing sound and can barely hear any audio at all.....hmm. The iPod when plugged in with this cable plays flawless....however when switching the plug into the mini hissing...

I'm pretty sure that the output of the iPod dock is line level where the output of the mini is amplified. That could be the source of your distortion. Does the iMic offer line out as an option?

[turtle777]

Originally posted by SmileyDude:
I'm pretty sure that the output of the iPod dock is line level where the output of the mini is amplified. That could be the source of your distortion. Does the iMic offer line out as an option?

I'm pretty sure it's not that.
It is a grounding issue. The difference between line out and headphones out is not that big. At least not big enough to cause that sort of trouble.

-t