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Adding headphones to the sound system?

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Old 12-30-2006
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Adding headphones to the sound system?

Hey guys, sorry I havn't been around lately. Got a new girlfriend, so needless to say my spare time hasn't exactly been spent on here. Actually, she's the reason I'm posting this question.

She loves loud music. I'm talking volume-set-to-11 loud. While I enjoy that every now and then, she's *always* doing it. I've tried coaxing her to turn it down, but that just dosn't work. Hurts my ears and makes it hard to hear what's going on around me. So, my question is: is it possible to add a headphone jack to a stock unit? Preferably something that has it's own volume control (so I can listen at a nice low volume and she can blow her eardrums out at the same time).

I would like to keep my current H/U (stock MP3 player, actually has speed volume!). So I'm thinking there's got to be something that hooks into the audio out on it. If not, I may need to look into building something.
 
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Old 12-30-2006
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illegal to do that, dont think its possible either, just have her listen to an ipod
 
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Old 12-30-2006
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this is asking to make it to worlds stupidest ppl lol..i wouldnt do it make her wear headphones like jeff said..or just kick her outta your truck lol..jk..
 
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Old 12-30-2006
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Tell her that she is insensitive to your needs, and that you are angry. Then hold out sex for a few weeks, and act like nothing is wrong...but you know.
 
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Old 12-30-2006
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Originally Posted by 4X2XLT
illegal to do that, dont think its possible either, just have her listen to an ipod

its illegal to have your passenger wear headphones?
 
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Old 12-30-2006
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Originally Posted by Gay-briel
its illegal to have your passenger wear headphones?
i think he means to have a headphone jack easily accessible to the driver like that... i guess if the driver wears them himself, he might be distracted... much like a cell phone??? with that said, i don't have any idea if any such thing is illegal.. cell phones are in many states, so it might be possible.
 
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Old 12-30-2006
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I know it Texas its not illegal you can do alot of things while driving
 
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Old 12-30-2006
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oh i had the impression that this is in her car... if its in your truck and shes being a ***** and wants it loud just say no....
 
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Old 12-31-2006
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yes you can do this. we hooked up the rca's for a sub this way. just splice into the right and left outputs on the back of the headunit that go to the speakers. splice that with a 2 conductor wire into headphone jack and BAM u have headphones. on the other hand you would have to find out a way to keep the volume low on the speakers and high on the heaphones.
 
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Old 12-31-2006
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Originally Posted by Roach2004
I know it Texas its not illegal you can do alot of things while driving

it is if u have your restrictions for the first 6 months when u have a lisence... you can lose your lisence until your 18... haha


Originally Posted by Gay-briel
its illegal to have your passenger wear headphones?
i wouldnt see why??? just hide the jack haha, i mean if it as illigal.. it would be illigal to have an ipod or walkman or CD player in the car.. like alcohol right?

idk thats my view on it
 
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Old 12-31-2006
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Originally Posted by DaneTrain
Tell her that she is insensitive to your needs, and that you are angry. Then hold out sex for a few weeks, and act like nothing is wrong...but you know.
Lmao brilliant!
 
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Old 01-01-2007
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Thanks for the input guys. LMAO DaneTrain! Sounds like I have a challange for next weekend...
 
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Old 01-02-2007
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they sell RF style headphones that you plug into the RCA output of your raido, but i think they are controled via the main volume. they are used if you have something like a back seat dvd system for the rugrats, they can listen to that and you and the misses can have peace
 
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Old 01-02-2007
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well if you do the splice thing, you could buy headphones that have a volume control built into them....and you can set your volume and then she can change the volume on her headphones...
 
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Old 01-02-2007
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Originally Posted by RangerJustin
well if you do the splice thing, you could buy headphones that have a volume control built into them....and you can set your volume and then she can change the volume on her headphones...
if i remember correctly though, she'd only be able to turn it up to a maximum of what he has it turned up to... the only benefit from doing a volume control like so would be so she can turn her's down... but that isn't needed.


i'd look into some sort of 2 zone option. lots of aftermarket hu's are starting to have this option. basically.. it'll split the sound into 2 zones. you could rig it so the first zone, or the front zone, would be the truck itself... then build the second zone as her head phone jack. with this, you'd be able to control volume independantly.... it could probably be done easily with some sort of simple attentuator. i bet John or Bob would be able to figure it out for a stock radio.
 
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Old 01-02-2007
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Originally Posted by DaneTrain
Tell her that she is insensitive to your needs, and that you are angry. Then hold out sex for a few weeks, and act like nothing is wrong...but you know.

^X2 (minus the sex)
 
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Old 01-02-2007
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The problem is not making the headphones loud enough -- it's keeping them from blowing.

Headphones make ear-splitting volume with less than a watt applied.

Second problem is this, and I'm warning you that this is the biggest problem: our speaker outputs don't have a common wire. There are two wires per speaker, and they MUST be kept separate or you'll blow the output stage.

Headphones are 3 wire circuits with a common "ground". You simply can't hook them up to our radios without a transformer, or you'll have to take off the connector and split the feeds so that each driver in the headphones has it's own two wires with no common between them.

Ignore this at your peril!

That being said, if you do split the feeds and hook it up, then put 100 ohm, 1/2 watt resistors in series with the headphones. Failure to do so will probably result in blown headphones, or blown eardrums. You may need an even higher ohms value, but time will tell.

Your girlfriend is a bit of a fool, and she's going to regret this someday.
 
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