I finally entered the 21st century and bought an ipod touch. I want to occasionally listen to it through my system, but if I do through mini jack to RCA the output is quite low and I need to crank either the ipod up (which I figure could be quite distorted at the upper range), or crank the receiver up. Is a dock a better way to listen to your ipod through your receiver? I am talking about a Yamaha HT receiver specifically, but I do have a separates system (2 CH) that I would like to listen on as well. Is there a universal dock that would work well for both, or should I just stick to mini - RCA? Thanks in advance

 The dock should be much better, BTW, how does the dock, PLUG into your receiver?, or better yet can you tell me what receiver you have, and the dock that you want to get?. and the SQ will also depend how you IMPORT your music.

 Or you can get something like this                   http://www.amazon.com/Ziotek-ZT1900664HC1-2-Feet-30Pin-Stereo/dp/B0051MQJ2U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338907281&sr=8-1,  this will sound better, as i beleive it buy passes the ipods internal DAC. I would try this route first to see if it helps.  Thanks.

joshjp:

http://www.amazon.com/Ziotek-ZT1900664HC1-2-Feet-30Pin-Stereo/dp/B0051MQJ2U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338907281&sr=8-1

Fixed so it's a link.  This is better than coming out of the headphone jack at the top of the iPod, but not because it bypasses the internal DAC.  Rather, it bypasses the internal volume control, which is the source of considerable sound degradation from an iPod/iPhone.

And joshjp is certainly correct about the impact of how the music is stored.  If possible, store the music uncompressed.  If you can't hold enough that way, go for lossless compression.  And if, heaven forbid, you have to use lossy compression, keep the bit rate at 256 kbps or higher if at all possible.  MP3s at less than 256 kbps might as well go through the volume control, not worth much other than background music at that point.

All IMHBCO (in my humble but correct opinion) of course. 

Lou

Joshjp / LHF63, I don't know much about the Yamaha dock other than I think it has some sort of multi-pin proprietary connector, so you can use your remote and so forth. I do like that second option you sent me, which may do the trick on either system and is cheap. The receiver that I have is a RX-V661, so I think the YDS-12 dock would work, but since it will just be occasional listening, I may go with your option two - don't have much to loose there. Thanks guys - I knew I would get some good advice.