Can I use a headphone amplifier to amplify the gain from my mp3 player to my cars head unit?

My mp3 player tends to distort at high volumes, thus causing line input distortion to my head unit. I turn the volume down on my mp3 player to avoid it, but then there's not enough signal to the head unit to cleanly amplify it at high volumes. If I use a headphone amplifier between the mp3 player and head unit, will that cleanly amplify the gain going into my head unit?