Hi fellas,

I have an el-cheapo MP3 player to connect to an el-cheapo amp.

Can someone tell me what I need to do to the MP3 headphone signal to make it acceptable for the amp's rca inputs?

Haven't actually bought the amp yet, but no point if I can't hook it up. I gather that, since the mp3 player is driving small speakers (the headphones), the signal needs to be reduced in order to make it ok for the amp?

Any advice appreciated.

almost forgot to ask - i will need a VERY cheap amp - it only needs to power the MP3 player to the standard of those cheap $100 cd players

Where to buy, and what brand? doesn't even need to exceed 40W

Normally to compress a large signal you would need some sort of DI box or PAD switch / converter, however this is in PA and audio, so it is probably different in car audio. But look on your amp for a button that says 'pad' or '-20db' and that should do it, but it should be ok if you just get a 1-2 out headphone jack and combine it with the input from the head unit. Or in some units (like my pioneer) there is a AUX send in which you can directly input the headphone jack into the head unit and control the signal from there.