Internal speaker disabled when audio output jack occupied

[iWantAMac]

Is there any way to disable this and have both built-in and external speakers working simultaneously?

[Killyp]

No, it's a physical relay which switches between the two. No way for it to be 'in the middle', it's one or the other. :(

[iWantAMac]

hmmm, i'll live :cool:

[CortexRock]

You can have external speakers and your iMac speakers working at the same time, but it requires an Airport Express base station with Airtunes and a spare set of powered speakers.

Then you can send music to both or either your internal speakers or the external ones via iTunes.

Probably not practical for what you want, but it is a solution! :D

[mkrishnan]

Yeah, it's unfortunate that, for instance, there's no way to have music sent to the wired external speakers and all system sounds internally.... Although, at least one odd exception is that Garageband is able to output different sounds to the audio out and the speakers. Unless I'm misremembering, you can independently send tracks to the headphones, the speakers, or both. Which would suggest that it is *not* actually a physical relay....

[Platform]

You can have external speakers and your iMac speakers working at the same time, but it requires an Airport Express base station with Airtunes and a spare set of powered speakers.

Then you can send music to both or either your internal speakers or the external ones via iTunes.

Probably not practical for what you want, but it is a solution! :D

How would you do this...in iTunes you have to choose where to send the music? How do you select more than one?

[AlBDamned]

You could also get an external sound card - USB, firewire or PC card slot - to do this.

[CortexRock]

How would you do this...in iTunes you have to choose where to send the music? How do you select more than one?

There's a menu bar that appears bottom right of the iTunes window when you have multiple speakers connected. Clicking it brings up a dialogue box where you can choose which of all the speakers you have (including the Mac ones) to send music to.

Works great for me!