Hey,
To answer your questions, yes, the source sounds pretty good through headphones -
The cable that I am using currently is what I described above - here is a link to a similar cable:
https://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=181-591 Then I have attached double ended shielded gator clips, one to the red and one to the black - and then to the clips - should I just connect two gator clips to just the red large RCA and thence to each of the pins? This is about as clean as we can get, regardless - the ohms coming out of this thing measured at the rca red and black is .475 ohms, FYI.
Still sounds like crap, and I hope it is me.
K