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I want to connect the headphones-out of my sansa MP3 player to a PA system.
I used to do this with a Creative Zen, a fairly large MP3 player - as big as a pack of cigarrettes. Battery charge lasted for days. Worked great in a lot of different situations. Dont have that player anymore.
Now I have a Sansa Clip. Matchbox-sized, sounds great with headphones. Battery is good for 5-6 hours. When I hook it up to my Logitech computer speakers they sound fine, and the battery drains a lot faster. When I hook it up to a Peavy mixer, via the AUX on one of the channels, I get droputs: every ten seconds or so, each lasting a fraction of a second.
Can y'all tell me what is going on? Is there a handy fix?
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Hard as it is to imagine, perhaps you are overdriving the mixer input and it has some type of protection limiting circuitry? Try turning the Sansa headphone volume down slightly. Although you still do want it to be fairly high, there is no standard for levels on the headphone jack like there is for a Line Out signal, so you just have to experiment. Does the mixer have LEDs to show signal overload?
I would also try other devices into that mixer, so as to isolate which piece of equipment is causing the problem. Include checking the cables.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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mr foot, you have what is called an "impedance mis-match" (qv). iirc, your headphone jack on your sansa "clip" is only somewhere between 4 - 32 ohms while the mixer is 10k - 50kohms or more. btw, i had the old 2 gigabit sansa clip and loved the sound quality until my dear wife of 50+ years stepped on it. sometimes i still miss her. i'm afraid to ask but, what is your clip's storage capacity?
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I have used a laptop headphone out, DVD player out, other MP3 players, ipad, etc. All are fine exceopt this little thing.
>>>... i had the old 2 gigabit sansa clip and loved the sound quality until my dear wife of 50+ years stepped on it. sometimes i still miss her. i'm afraid to ask but, what is your clip's storage capacity?..>>>
I have the 4g model, plus an 8g memry card. Holds a lot of stuff.
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This is very likely not an impedance problem.
A rule of thumb in audio electronics is that you can always drive a higher impedance input with a lower impedance source and suffer no loss. The nominal 8 ohm headphone output of the player should drive the nominal 10K input or even the so-called Low Impedance 600 ohm input of your PA without problem.
Try the headphone output jack with the proper stereo breakout Y adaptor into the PA system. Perhaps something is up with the AUX output on that player. Let's hope its not some copy protection scheme...
--Mac
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. >>>..Try the headphone output jack with the proper stereo breakout Y adaptor into the PA system...>> Thats what I am doing: Stereo mini plug into the player to 2 RCA males, then 2-RCA-F Y into 1/4 male into an AUX in, into one of the channels. Today I tried it with lower volume at the player, and it worked. The whole system was at very low volume. Worked OK, but Iam still curious what is going on. The PA system is an older model Peavy, similar to this: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/615682-REG/Peavey_00595600_PVi_4B_4.html
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"A stereo RCA input with a level control is included so you can easily attach a CD or MP3 player."
This from your link. Why not use those RCA inputs?
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Yes, I would recommend giving the RCA inputs a try as well.
--Mac
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>>>..."A stereo RCA input with a level control is included so you can easily attach a CD or MP3 player."
This from your link. Why not use those RCA inputs? ...>>>
Sorry - that link is misleading. I have an older model Peavy. The only inputs on it are XLR for each channel and AUX-mono-1/4" for each channel.
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It should work with the line ins but those box units don't have separate gain controls. Using the cable you have get a couple of XLF to 1/4"F adapters and use the mic inputs.Turn it WAY down first.
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Quote:
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>>>..."A stereo RCA input with a level control is included so you can easily attach a CD or MP3 player."
This from your link. Why not use those RCA inputs? ...>>>
Sorry - that link is misleading. I have an older model Peavy. The only inputs on it are XLR for each channel and AUX-mono-1/4" for each channel.
Those 1/4" inputs may just be paralleling the XLR Mic input as unbalanced. In other words they are very likely being passed thru the Mic Preamps of each channel, which may be creating a bad situation where the gainstaging is just way too high for that earphone input.
**Try turning the Volume on the mp3 player DOWN and see if you can find a point where it does not overdrive the PA input but still sounds full.**
Worst case, you may have to invest in an inline Audio Attenuator (or build one using proper sized resistors) to act as a voltage divider between the mp3 player and those PA inputs.
--Mac
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So much for plug 'n play. Someday they will make one for deaf people with age related vision problems who plug in the thing and it ends their life. I can see some engineers (social?), who would be laughing at we the impaired, but hoping for for the fountain of youth. I tried the bone and joint stuff, don't waste your money.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Thanks Mac.
Considering the age of the Peavey, it could be that the 1/4" input is meant for a mike with an XLR-1/4 cable. The Mic Pre would expect a mic-level signal. Could it be that the mic pre goes to zero when it sees a too-hot signal?
Dropouts is what I am getting.
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It could be that the mic pre is being overloaded. Not a good thing to repeat as there is the chance that circuit damage may result.
--Mac
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