Brad Cook

Mac users: plugging in speakers on Power Mac

Hey Everyone:

I have a dual 1 GHz Power Mac G4 and I recently picked up some Creative 2.1 speakers for it. Unfortunately, the speaker jack didn't fit in the speaker port on the computer, so I had to plug them into the headphones jack, which meant that nothing came out of the subwoofer.

I stopped by Radio Shack today and picked up a 1/8" to 3/32" adapter that the salesguy said should work. (He knew exactly what I was talking about when I told him the issue.) When I plugged the speaker jack into the adapter and plugged the adapter into the speaker input, though, I got a ton of static and a pop-up that said the computer couldn't recognize the device plugged into the speaker port. If I try to play a DVD, for example, I get tons of static.

So what's the deal? Do I need a different adapter? And why the heck does Apple make their speaker ports that way? Silly me, assuming I could just buy some speakers and plug them in.

http://www.bradcook.net

RolandDeschain

The Speaker ports on a Power Mac are intended for Apple's Pro Speakers (the round ones). They are pre-amplified, so plugging any other speaker into that port will not work unless they were intended to work with the Pro Speaker Jack.

Get a USB Audio Output like the Griffin iMic or something similar. I believe Jensen sells a 5.1 speaker kit that runs off of the Pro Speaker output, check it out at the Apple Store.

Patrick Larkin

I have a single 1.25 GHz machine at work and I can swear I have regular old speakers plugged into a line out. Its a newer mirror door model.



You can see 3 jacks at the bottom left. One is a line in, a line out, and the funky Apple connector at the bottom. I can't look at mine at the moment.

From the tech specs: "...front headphone minijack and speaker, rear Apple speaker minijack, analog audio line in and analog audio line out minijacks"

Obligatory DVD List

Mike Sogge

I have a Cambridge 2.1 system that works just fine when plugged into the headphone jack. If your subwoofer does not function, I would suspect that something is goofy with it and not the computer.

Brad Cook

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

Patrick: Mine isn't the mirror door model. It's one of the Quicksilver models, as shown here. It's a loaner from Apple (I'm a contractor for them), so I don't know a whole lot about it.

Mike: Are your speakers plugged into a Power Mac?

The sound isn't bad through the headphone jack, so I'll just leave it at that for right now. Maybe I'll get one of those Griffin iMics in January.

Thanks again for the comments.

http://www.bradcook.net

Mike Sogge

I originally had them plugged into a 1st edition QuickSilver G4 w/o problem. I now use them with my TiBook w/o problem. The QuickSilvers have the goofy Apple jack in addition to the standard style headphone jack. The TiBook only has the latter.