John V. Moore asked,
>Can anyone please tell me the difference between using headphone out and LINE
>OUT when transferring audio cuts from ones cassette machine to a computer.
>Sorry for such a basic question, but Paul Coopmans just asked this
>question and
>my only answer was that I think Line Out is better, but I really could not
>tell him why!
The proper way is to go from a line output to a line input with a
cable of less than six feet.
In some circumstances, however, the headphone output is a better line
output. For example, if you're driving a long cable (like going into
a studio patchbay) or feeding multiple inputs at the same time, the
lower impedance of the headphone output will avoid high-frequency
rolloff from cable capacitance or other loading effects.
Line outputs on consumer equipment are usually "padded" up to a
higher impedance with series resistors. This is because people often
"Y" the channels together to make mono, and a low-impedance line
output will distort under that condition. This compromise with
consumer reality makes consumer line outputs sensitive to load
conditions.
Headphone outputs are also padded to protect against shorts or
Y-connections, but they still have an order of magnitude lower output
impedance.
-Dan Dugan
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