Hey mike, unplug your ipod and see if the sirius volume turns up. I have this problem with mine, so when i'm not using my ipod i just unplug it. As for my setup, i did the same exact thing you did, but instead of mini jack to mini jack, i just used the rca's with a combination of adapters and splitters plus a gli. So far i have no noticable sound degradation and am very pleased with the results.