At the same volume setting, the FM and the CD are equally loud, but the ipod is noticably quieter. I have to play the ipod at nearly max volume to match the levels I play loud CD music. Is this your experience too and is there any way to increase the volume of what is on the ipod??

 

How are you connecting your ipod? Via the headphone jack into the aux input? Then you just need to crank the volume on the ipod. I connect mine with a dock connector cable that goes to a car charger that has a mini jack output with its own volume control. I just plug the charger inside the armrest adn use a short cable to connect it to the aux jack. I found that works best. Its a Belkin piece and then you need a short male to male mini jack cable. Heres a pic of the Belkin piece:

 

u should have got a cd rom with you tc, i did any way and it's basically a manual, it it says you control everthing with you ipod not the head unit, so yes volume need to be up on the ipod to get the same out of the head unit and the CD and radio.

 

I wouldn't put the iPods volume over 3/4 because I've noticed after that point, it starts to sound distorted.

 

I have the ipod option on the tC. The volume on the ipod has no effect on the speaker volume once its connected to the connector in the console.

 

I just bought a cable to play my iPod through the AUX and I was noticing the exact same thing (the volume difference). You're supposed to keep the iPod volume between 50% and 70%, as below 50 will cause it to turn itself off and above 70 is distorted. I was hoping there was a better way than to crank the iPod up to 70% (killing battery life, it now says "no power remains" around 3/5 battery left ) and to keep the volume up loud as well.

 

With the OEM ipod connection, the ipod is being charged while in use.

 

I don't have the iPod package deal, I'm just going through the aux port :/

 

This is what you do. This is the only thing I could think of to do with mine.
1. Go to iTunes
2. Go to your iPod on the source menu
3. Edit-Select All
4. Right Click-Get Info
5. Multiple Song Information-Volume Adjustment +100%

 

i dunno why all of your ipods are distorting, but i put my ipod nano on MAX volume and turn up my HU to 30s-40s. crystal clear sound, no distortion whatsoever. and yes, this is running it through the AUX port. i agree that the lack of volume on our port sucks, though. i wish i didnt havta crank my ipod 24/7 (probably drains battery a bit faster).

 

if you want the clearest sound without it distorting, your best bet would be getting a dock connector to a 1/8" minijack plug. it turns the ipod output to "line level" and thus yuo would loose control of the volume on your ipod, but it will be alot cleaner than running it through the headphone jack.

i used to have the belkin thing, it was great in my older car, but when i transferred it to my tC i got alot of noise (because it is charging and playing music at the same time, putting the power really close to the audio cable which is a big no no).

jax, my best guess is that your nano COULD be set with a limiter (which is only on the new ipods) that allow you to set the max loudness you can get, so that you wont hurt yourself by playing it too loud. but that is definately a possiblity.

overall, imo the headphone out on the ipod is relatively weak, compared to other stuff out there, and though it may be significantly quieter than the CD or radio, it is simply because the output of diffrent devices vary from one to another, esspecially if it is a diffrent source.

now im am not too shure if the stock deck has it, but on my deck there is a SLA option that allows me to adjust the gain to set equal level (i have an after market pioneer deck). but again i am not to shure if the stock deck has it or not.

hope this helps