My dad has recently upgraded his Hifi system and gave all of his equipment to me, but the only problem is I recently bought a reasonable docking system that I don't want to go to waste, so I was wondering if there was any way I can connect the docking system to my amp.
Is there anyway I can output my docking station, a KitSound Boom Dock http://kitsound.co.uk/product/BOOMDOCK, which only has an audio input not an output to my NAD series 20 3020 stereo amplifier. or
would it be easier to connect it to it through speaker wire and connect RCA plugs? the only problem being that I also have speakers connected to the amp which only has 2 speaker outputs.
It's not a good idea to run one amplifier's output into the inputs of another amplifier. You tend to wind up with two damaged amplifiers. The headphone output is typically low voltage which can be adapted to RCA's (Radio Shack might have a right adapter) and used into an "aux" input on another amplifier but the sound quality is not very good as the impedance of "out" to "in" will not be matched. The headphone amplifier is expecting a load of possibly 16-100 Ohms while the amplifier's aux input is in the neighborhood of several thousand Ohms. The mismatch really doesn't help sound quality. It's better just to have two systems and use each as its own unit.
Ben, did you buy the docking station less than 30 days ago? If so, you should be able to return it for a refund.
If you really want to play your iPod through your system and if you don't mind spending another $100, here's what you can do. Buy a Dynex dock for $60 and a Rockfish cable for $40. DON'T use the cable that comes with the dock. The back of the dock has a usb port just like the one on the bottom of your iPod. Plug the matching end of the Rock fish cable into this port. The cable will have left, right and video RCA plugs on another of the 3 ends. Attatch the audio cables to your amp. You can connect the video cable to a TV if you'll be watching movies or music videos from your iPod. Otherwise, let the video dangle as long as it doesn't make contact with any metal objects. Finally, plug the 3rd end into the charger which comes with the dock. It looks just like a usb port on a computer. Then plug the charger into the wall, or pteferably a surge protector.
Like Jan said, the sound quality going from amp out (docking station) to amp in (Nad) will compromised.
the docking station doesn't have a headphone jack and if it did I know that sound quality would be effected.
I bought the docking station a good 2 months ago now so I can't get a refund for the docking station.
I guess the easiest thing to do is to buy a headphone splitter and then two 3.5mm jack to 2xRCA and plug them into the dock and the amp to play my music.