Sony ES3000 help

I upgraded my garage amp to a Sony DAES3000 receiver. I scored one locally, used for 150+ tax.
Right now its feeding a pair of Martin-Logan Motion2s.

I needed something which could also support a second set of speakers (for the patio), and multiple inputs.

So its hooked up and powering my old Sony Blu-Ray player which is on CD duty.
I also want to play stuff from my phone. So I use a Y through the headphone jack to RCAs.


Now the volume level is atrocious. If I max the volume the ES3000 only gives me + 10DB, and I could use more power.

I can get some limited boost from the built in EQ, but not much.

So that was from the phone, using RCA/analog in on either the MD/DAT or the TAPE connections.

Then I hooked up the CD player, with an optical cable.

Holy smokes! There is the volume.
The sound is fantastic.
I was spinning Ziggy Stardust and the percussion in 5 years sounded amazing (along with the rest of the album).

Is there something different way I should connect the phone?

 

Do you have the volume on the phone turned up all the way?

 

Yeah I did that and it got somewhat better.

 

Is your Y cable stereo on both ends? If the small jack that goes into the phone is mono you might be causing a bad connection inside the phone and might be the reason for the low volume.

 

I am assuming its stereo. I was wondering about getting a better Y, I will take a look at what monoprice has.