Hi I have a RioCar, to test it out I got a Dual RCA to headphone jack plug cable so I could plug it into my computers input jack. What is odd, If i plug the rcas all the way in to the player in either the sleds front or back or the ones on the player it self it is EXTREMLY faint and alot of static, However If I plug it in so only the middle is in and the outer ring doesnt touch its much louder and no static. I was wondering if someone might know if something is wrong or if this is normal. I havent had a chance to install it in my car yet, just playing with it while i load up mp3s... Thanks!

You may be plugging it into the wrong jack, for instance, you might be plugging it into the microphone jack. It must go into the line input jack, not the microphone jack.

I have tried 6 differnt rca jacks, 4 on the sled, and 2 on the actual player, didnt try the aux ones.. as long as just the center part of the rca cable is pluged i get great signal soon as the outer part comes in contact it goes down the drain and get bad static too..

I'm not talking about the jacks on the player, I'm talking about the jack on your PC's sound card. Most sound cards have a microphone jack and a line-input jack. It needs to be plugged into the latter, not the former.

oh yeah its pluged in the line in, ive double checked that just now just to be sure..

Hmmm... This sounds like a somewhat strange setup. You have the player in the sled, getting your audio stream from the front or rear outputs connecting to your PC. How are you feeding the player power? Through the regular power jack? I am wondering if the unusual setup is causing a ground loop somewhere, or if the player is thinking it is in AC mode and is not sending the signal the way you expect through the sled.

I hate to ask this, but did you check that the volume is up on the player and that it is not in "hush" or mute? Did you double check your sound card settings to make sure the LineIn isn't muted or set at low gain?

Good suggestions, Brad.

AFAIK, the power plug should be isolated from ground so that shouldn't cause a ground loop. Serial cables on the other hand...

I've had ground loops develop where the only thing connnecting the player to the amplifer was the RCA cables. So ground loops can happen. Not only that, but the ground loop was solved by swapping the player's Sunpower brick adapter with the compact plug-top adapter.

The reason I have it in the sled was for the serial connection, the cable I got would only hook up to the pc and the riocar if in the sled, not the connector on the player it self. But since I have gotten telnet installed I guess i could remove it from the sled. No line in isnt muted and volume is up on it. I have turned the volume up on the player as well..

Ok, when I remove it from the sled and plug the rcas into the player it self i get absolutly NO sound.. seems only way i can get some sound is in the sled.. any ideas?

+-----+                  +------+

|Rio  | -o=---\          | PC   |

| Car |        >------=- | Line |

|     | -o=---/          | In   |

+-----+                  +------+



-o=--   == RCA Plugs

---=-   == Headphone Plug

Sorry for the crappy ascii drawin, but thats how i have it hooked up now.. It was the same before only I used the sleds RCAs and i only pluged in the tips to get sound not pushed in all the way.

I have a multimeter laying around here somewhere if its possible to use it to check if its sending any signal. Tho I would need someone to explain to me how to do so. I have used the multimeter to check voltages on a car battery thats about it..

I have completely disasembeled my player, and inspected the rca plugs on the main board, top and bottom, there appears to be no break in the locations it was sodered on.

Sorry if this was mentioned... but did you try another set of cables?

Hopefully you've already tried this:

I think the saved volume level for AC power is different than the saved volume level for DC power. After pulling my backup, never used, riocar off the shelf a week or two ago, loading up my tunes, and listening for a while at home, I freaked out when I brought it to the car and got no output.
The display indicated everything was operating fine .

Turns out the volume control was at negative infinity db....or whatever the lowest setting was!

-brendan

And if it's not that, check that your fader isn't set all the way to the rear. RCAs on the empeg are front channels.

check that your fader isn't set all the way to the rear

In AC/Home mode, the player's fader is set to the center so that you get full volume from both the front and the rear outputs. So that's not it.

At this point we should work on ruling out the computer's sound card. Try using that RCA-to-headphone cable to plug the empeg directly into your PC speakers, bypassing the PC, and see if it sounds OK. If not, try using that same cable to connect a CD player to the PC speakers. Also try connecting the CD player to the computer's sound card.

In AC/Home mode, the player's fader is set to the center so that you get full volume from both the front and the rear outputs. So that's not it.

I didn't realise that. Another little technical detail that most people wouldn't even consider. Thanks for letting me keep my pride and not FAQing me!

In AC/Home mode, the player's fader is set to the center so that you get full volume from both the front and the rear outputs.

Except that he said earlier that he gets sound when it's in the sled, which suggests to me (if he's powering it from the sled) that this might be the problem.

In reply to:

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At this point we should work on ruling out the computer's sound card. Try using that RCA-to-headphone cable to plug the empeg directly into your PC speakers, bypassing the PC, and see if it sounds OK. If not, try using that same cable to connect a CD player to the PC speakers. Also try connecting the CD player to the computer's sound card.

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OMG I feel like such an idiot lol.. Thats what it was, my computer.. I plug it directly to the speakers with out the sled and computer and its SO much louder then it ever was in the sled thru the pc... And the RCAs are plugged in all the way on it too.. Thank you!

Tho the whole mix up wasnt all a lose. While I had the player apart I went ahead and added another 30gig drive.. Figured sine I was in there..