preamp outs, and apparent magic

Okay, so I hooked up a headphone -> RCA adaptor in to the preamp outs on my head unit. Why is it that this works?

Like, I turn my iPod on, turn the HU to tuner, turn the volume to 1 (on the HU) and it works. Music from my iPod plays through the speakers. It doesn't SEEM like this should work.

Also, is this damaging anything? Because if not, I'd love to leave it this way.

it will work, just not much power - the volume of the headphones will depend on the output impedance of the headunit and the speaker impedance of the headphones, If they are really mismatched, you will blow the RCA outputs on the headunit.

well, the preouts are 800 ohms, but I have no idea about the ipod.

is there a safe way to make it a little bit louder without jepordizing the H.U.? I know it's the COMPLETE wrong way to do this but there's no other input and FM transmitters suck.


Also, WHY does this work? I thought output was just for output

I didn't know you could make a preout into an input either .... but it can't be good.

Fm transmitters really suck, try using an fm modulator, they are a lot, a lot better....you could get a pretty legit one for about $30 bucks.

the kind people use for car dvd/tv systems.