Headphone Out to Amplifier

ThemeOne

I am connecting the headphone out socket on a clock radio to a traditional amplifier with connected speakers, to get better sound.

It all works OK, except the volume level is very low. I have to increase the volume on the clock radio to a level that would be uncomfortable to listen to using the radio's own speakers, plus crank up the volume on the amp beyond what I would normally use.

I've used headphone out from a laptop in a similar way before, without having this volume issue, but maybe not all headphone outs are created equal.

Just to rule out a few basic issues, I've tried connecting with different cables and to two different amplifiers, but all with the same result.

I know you can buy cheap pre-amps to convert phono level to line level, and I was wondering if something similar would be appropriate here?

Head_The_Ball

ThemeOne wrote: »

..I know you can buy cheap pre-amps to convert phono level to line level, and I was wondering if something similar would be appropriate here?

You could do but why bother?

The headphone socket on the clock radio is presumably linked to the volume control.

Turn the clock radio volume up to maximum or near maximum, set the volume on the amp to whatever level you want and just remember not to remove the cable without first either turning down the volume on the radio or switching it off.

coffeehound

Impedance mismatch? If you are going to spend some money, an inexpensive secondhand tuner would give you the best result.

googler

Rather than buying a pre-amp, find a decent second-hand tuner, or a wifi device (Google Chromecast Audio, for instance) that will pick up live streaming 'radio' through your home broadband.

Owain_Moneysaver

If it's an old(er) mono clock radio the 'headphone' socket may actually be intended for an earphone and be a mono 3.5mm jack.

Depending on the location of contacts in the mono socket it might be connecting to the stereo lead across tip and ring left (+) and right (+) rather than to tip and sleeve left/right (+) and screen.

A mono-to-stero cable might help

http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/psg00205/3-5mm-plug-to-2x-phono-plugs-2m/dp/AV13803

ThemeOne

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

If it's an old(er) mono clock radio the 'headphone' socket may actually be intended for an earphone and be a mono 3.5mm jack.

Depending on the location of contacts in the mono socket it might be connecting to the stereo lead across tip and ring left (+) and right (+) rather than to tip and sleeve left/right (+) and screen.

A mono-to-stero cable might help

http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/psg00205/3-5mm-plug-to-2x-phono-plugs-2m/dp/AV13803

The radio is in fact less than a year old, but your post did have me wondering if the socket was mono.

According to the specs page in the manual it's a "stereo earphone socket".

Owain_Moneysaver

Is it a stereo clock radio?

It might be mono output to L+ and R+ (tip and ring) ignoring the sleeve, which would work with headphones with each ear being in series (and antiphase!) but wouldn't work with an amplifier.

It might be helpful if you can post make and model number of the clock radio.

ThemeOne

It's an Azatom Horizon.

Owain_Moneysaver

Headphone outputs do vary in power/impedance matching, but it's unusual that it's so unusable with an external amplifier.

There is a customer service contact email on their website, you could try asking them.

coffeehound

There's an interesting note in the manual:

The lead connecting the earphones to your radio acts as an aerial when plugged into the Earphone socket.

Not sure how that works.

coffeehound

I suppose that would be an amplifier input in parallel with the audio output with high-pass filters so will 'share' the audio output signal with the headphones to some extent.