Great iPod cables at good prices

[JohnnyB]

A lot of the cables for connecting your iPod to a stereo are either cheap white box trash or are targeted at the iPod market with inflated prices. I recently came across this vendor, which offers really well-made cables of top-notch materials for very reasonable prices. I'm not talking $4.95, but I'm not talking 100 bucks either.

What particularly jazzes me about these guys is that FINALLY, I can find a quality iPod cable that plugs into the docking socket instead of the headphone jack. The advantage is that this connection bypasses the iPod's internal op-amp, giving you a cleaner signal path and just one place to adjust the volume--whatever you plugged the iPod into. I'm talking about this one. It's available in standard lengths from 6 inches to 6 feet, but you can also custom order other lengths. I have a six-footer and it's great. Extremely well built at about $30.

For anyone out there who got the Nuforce Icon Mobile headphone amplifier for their iPod, this version in the 6-inch length (0.5 feet) would be ideal to connect the iPod to the headphone amp for cleanest sound and to pass all volume control to the headphone amp.

But here's also a heads-up for a great headphone adapter cable, the Zu Audio Pivot:

I'm not expecting many of you to pony up $139 for the retail price of this cable. But it turns out that Zu sells a few of their cables on eBay, new, with same warranty and 60-day return period as their full-priced product at their website. I just re-cabled my turntable-based stereo with $2K worth of Zu cable that I got from their zupromos eBay entity for about 1/4 that. This cable is fabulous--very fast and transparent with excellent noise rejection, easy handling and flexibility, and absolute top notch materials and connectors. Their connectors are cold-welded to the wire--no solder, no screws, just mashed into a single entity via extreme pressure.

Zu currently is offering some Zu Pivot Cable auctions on the 'bay. So far the two closed auctions for this cable range from $28 to $75.

Ram Electronics or Zu Cable on eBay: Both fantastic values and highly recommended by someone (me) who owns and uses products from both vendors extensively.

[sonic1974]

JB,

You're so well informed on the stuff that you post about. Where do you do your research on the audio stuff? Thanks.

[BubbaVO]

What particularly jazzes me about these guys is that FINALLY, I can find a quality iPod cable that plugs into the docking socket instead of the headphone jack. The advantage is that this connection bypasses the iPod's internal op-amp, giving you a cleaner signal path and just one place to adjust the volume--whatever you plugged the iPod into.

That's a huge deal in a car with an upgraded stereo system. The difference between plugging in my iPod through the docking socket and the headphone jack is very noticeable.

[DavidE]

The only issue I see with that cable is that it takes up the main port but doesn't supply power to the iPod/Phone/Touch. If it did that, it would be perfect.

[JohnnyB]

The only issue I see with that cable is that it takes up the main port but doesn't supply power to the iPod/Phone/Touch. If it did that, it would be perfect.

For that, they offer dock-to-mini+USB and dock-to-RCA+USB.

Ram Electronics offers just about every iPod cable configuration imaginable, and some I didn't know existed. Go here to scroll through the possibilities, which include straight or right angle mini-plugs, mini-to-mini, mini-to-RCA, dock-to-mini with or without USB, dock-to-RCA with or without USB.

They also offer something I haven't seen before, a the iPro locking 3.5mm stereo mini plug (available with or without USB) that provides a secure connection to various adapters: dual XLR, dual 1/4" phone plug, or dual RCA.

For example, with dock-to-locking mini+USB cable plus 2x1/4" adapter or 2xXLR adapter, you could plug an iPod into a mixing board and keep the iPod powered with the USB adapter.