INTERACT FORUM

As in a previous post I am considering the Creative Labs ZEN 60 GB portable.  I would like to somehow wire this to my Sony amp and or head unit in my boat.  Not having tried this I see several ways to go and need tech help with the best course to follow.  

The ZEN only has headphone output.  How do I interface this to the boat system?  The boat has a Sony headunit with a wired remote control that is there primarily for volume control.  The way I see it there are goes into and goes out of connections.

Wire the headphone to an adapter cable that adapts RCA output to the banana style plug the AMP has.  The ZEN player would then have to control the volume.  Can you wire headphones output straight into the AMP?  Are the signal out from the headphone and signal in to the AMP compatible?  If I did this I would probably use a splitter so that the head unit was still wired to the amp, in other words the ZEN player headphone out would go to a Y cable that also had the headunit output going to the AMP.  Will the signals fight each other or smoke some component in either one?

Purchase a different head unit that has AUX in jack.  Wire the Headphone to the AUX in jack.  Again the ZEN has no Line Out so is the AUX in compatible with the headphone out signal?  I think if I did it this way that the headunit would have the volume control function as well as left right, base treble etc.  Perhaps because the headphone out signal is increased or decreased by the volume setting on the ZEN I would have to put it at close to max volume and then increase or decrease the volume through the headunit.  


My Sony Amp has Direct Speaker input (wire headunit speaker inputs directly to the amp) if I use this will the ZEN have enough power to drive the amp?  Curently the headunit is wired to Line Level in, the ZEN would go to the Direct Speaker Input.  Can they both operate the amp?

So in a nutshell it comes down to if Headphone out from a portable unit will go to RCA in on an amp and if Headphone out on a portable unit has enough power to drive Direct Speaker Input on an amp and if Headphone out is compatible with AUX in on a Headunit.

Am I on the right track?