To connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to your home stereo, you just need a 3.5mm to RCA cable like this cable above. The two RCA connectors plug into the back of your stereo and the 3.5mm plugs into the headphone jack on your iPhone. Almost all available stereos have RCA inputs as the standard inputs on the back. If you want the best possible audio quality, an Apple iPod dock will make it sound even better, but more on that in a bit.
The first thing you’ll need is a cable. One end of the cable has a 3.5mm headphone jack. This looks exactly like the plug on the end of your Apple headphones. It is also nicknamed the “auxiliary” cable. The other end of the cable has 2 RCA connectors. These will plug directly into your stereo. The cable looks like this:
These cables start as cheap as 1c (for example, here) but I’d steer clear of one like that that uses cheap cable. Just about anyone can tell the difference in sound from one of these cheap cables, even if they don’t know much about music. The difference between a mid-range cable and a high-end cable is less noticeable unless you have good hearing and good stereo. I use one like this which is around $25 but you can buy one somewhere in the mid range for around $10 like this or this one and it should be fine. I find Belkin to be quite reliable. Stay away from anything on eBay that looks like this:
I’ve written an article on how to find the best cable here.
You can plug the 3.5mm cable directly into the headphone jack on your iPod, and the other end will connect to your stereo. This isn’t the best solution (read later in this article), but it works.
For best results, set your iPhone’s volume to half. If it’s too quiet, you may hear some noise and hissing. If it’s too high, you may get some distortion.
When connected to the back of your stereo amp, the normal input to use would be AUX-IN, but you can use almost any input you like: CD – INPUT, TAPE-IN, TV-IN, DVD-IN or AUX-IN.
Do not use PHONO-IN as it is designed specifically for a turntable and will not sound as good .
Next page: iPod Dock and Wireless Airplay…
When you connect your iPhone directly to your stereo as described above, there will be a very slight loss in audio quality. This is because the headphone jack is designed to power headphones, not connect to a stereo. (You can read about the technical differences here.) For most people this probably won’t be noticeable, so unless you have a really good stereo with a good set of speakers, direct wire will work just fine.
If however, if If you want the best possible audio quality in your stereo, equivalent to or better than a CD player, then you can buy a “dock” for your iPhone.
Apple sells iPod and iPhone docks for the new lightning connecto here, but for older iPods that don’t have a lightning connector, Apple no longer sells this product. Even your own support article here (dated Feb 2015) now tells you to plug the iPod directly into your home stereo from the headphone jack. (This will work, but it’s definitely inferior sound quality to the dock.)
So, for the best sound quality, you should look for a second-hand iPod or iPhone dock that fits. to your iPhone. or iPod.
On eBay you will need to search for something like this:
“Apple Universal Dock Genuine”
“Apple Dock MA045”
“Apple Dock MC746LL”
“Apple Dock A1371”
Or they are still available on Amazon here, here, and here.
This is an Apple iPod dock. It has a ‘line out’ outlet at the back. (The connector on the left in the image above.) Using a line level will give you the best possible sound quality, better than just using the headphone jack. This is because the Line Out is designed to output a signal that is perfectly suited to a home stereo that has a “Line In”.
The iPod’s headphone output is not a true “line out”. ‘, is a headphone level. This is different. A headphone output is waiting for a pair of headphones, and while it will still work fine, you may lose some clarity or high or low end if you use it as a line output instead of a headphone output. The dock gives you a proper “line out” that will be the exact voltage and impedance to match the “line in” on your stereo. This is important to get the best sound quality.
Use the exact same cable I talked about above. The headphone jack plugs into the “line out” on the dock, and the RCA jacks plug into the back of your stereo.
The dock has other advantages. The first is obviously the best audio quality.But you can also leave the audio cable and charger cable connected to the dock permanently, so that every time your phone or iPod is connected to the dock, it will charge while it’s playing. The Apple iPod Dock also has an IR receiver on the front that will allow you to control your iPod via any Apple remote! so you can play and pause your iPod using the Apple remote.
Note that newer iPhone docks (iPhone 6 and later) do not have a “line out”. a ‘line output’.
The first generation Lightning Dock with a true ‘line output’.
The new iPhone dock with output is marked as headphones without ‘line output’.
There is a lot of confusion on Apple support sites as to whether this jack marked headphone is actually a true high quality “line out” or if it is the same as what a headphone jack would produce.
Here is one of the comments on Apple’s support site:
“Apple documentation says that you have headphones