Any sound/audio experts (or somebody with more knowledge than me!)?

[jimbo84]

Probably a simple thing but I know very little about sound stuff.

Just picked up a Cambridge Audio A1 amp and some speakers. Intended to run my computer or ipod through it.

Plugged a 3.5mm to phono lead into my phone headphone output and into one of the inputs on the back of the amp to test it worked. Tried various inputs and they are very quiet and can only just be heard with the amp volume turned right up to max. The only one that works normally is the tape input which has plenty of volume. It's got tuner, CD, aux/phono and tape inputs.

Is there something wrong with the other inputs or am I just being a numpty.

 

[Parm]

Have you turned up the volume on your play back device?

mask me how I know this

 

[hotponyshoes]

Is there a 'tape loop' button/switch on the front or anything like that?

 

[hotponyshoes]

Or a phones/monitor switch?

 

[jimbo84]

Have you turned up the volume on your play back device?

mask me how I know this

I double checked the volume on the phone, even up at max it's very quiet other than through the tape input which gives good volume.

Or a phones/monitor switch?

There is a tape monitor switch on the front but this doesn't make any difference.

Some pics of the front and back. The only input it works through properly is the one the phono's are plugged into. It works through the others just very very quietly.

 

[skotl]

You won't get great results, I'm afraid. Headphone outputs expect high-impedance loads (i.e. high resistance aka headphones) and simply don't have the oomph to drive a "line-in" input on an amp.

Most amps need 1V peak-to-peak, so you'll need a pre-amplifier (pre-amp) to drive it. You might be able to use a bluetooth speaker with a line output (like an Alexa type device), or hunt on ebay for a high-impedance pre-amp.

Edit: Something like this would work: eSynic Portable Headphone Amplifier Audio Rechargeble: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

Note that if you're googling for a "pre-amp" you'll run into a whole bunch of amps marked as "phono" (not phone!!!) or "turntable". These are not what you want as they modify the amplification across the frequency band to handle record deck (turntable) cartridges. If you get one of these your music will sound really boomy (google "RIAA curve" for an explanation).

 

[GrahamGKD]

Not sure if this helps but...

Our amp is a CXA60 - I have made up a 3.5mm jack to phono lead and that works fine into the A1 (Analog 1) input on the amp, either from my Galaxy S10 phone or the headphone jack on our HP laptop - as far as I know the other analog inputs would be the same?

 

[jimbo84]

@hotponyshoes was right, it was the tape monitor switch. Set it up and tried it again and working through all inputs now. I thought I'd already tried that but mustn't have tried it with the source selector wrong.

As suspected it was user error and me being a numpty, thanks for all the suggestions/advice