What exactly does ‘line out’ mean?

Rocker

My CD player sends a line out signal to my hi-fi amplifier. Is this the same signal level as my guitar outputs?  Or what my POD 2 sends to the FX Return of my guitar amplifier? 

Perhaps the thread title is worded badly but would sending my guitar output into a line input of my hi-fi amp work? I don’t mean sound good but actually work or produce a sound?  Likewise the output from my Xenyx microphone mixer?

 Thanks. 

Whistler

Signals that travels through cables come in a number of standard strengths: line levels, mic levels, instrument levels and speaker levels.

Shure, the microphone manufacturer, explains it well, here. Look half way down the page for the section entitled: What is line level?

KDS

Whistler said:

Signals that travels through cables come in a number of standard strengths: line levels, mic levels, instrument levels and speaker levels.

Shure, the microphone manufacturer, explains it well, here. Look half way down the page for the section entitled: What is line level?

THat is interesting reading and probably correct, but when I worked for Toshiba as a TV development engineer nearly 25 years ago, I thought line level was a 5 volt differential signal 

Danny1969

Line out means designed to drive into loads of around 10K and be of a voltage level of -10 dBV prosumer gear and +4 dBU for professional studio gear  ... some gear will have a switch to choose. 

It can be single ended or balanced 

ICBM

... and bear in mind that even within those specified ranges, there can be *huge* differences in the actual signal level, caused simply by turning up or down the volume of the source.

Sometimes you need to use trial and error, especially when connecting pieces of equipment by different manufacturers or in unconventional setups. Start with the source level low, and if there's too much noise, increase it. If there's distortion it's too high. It's *usually* pretty hard to damage anything even if you do cause distortion, but not totally impossible if you go too far, so be careful.