connect imac 27" i5 to external amp/speakers help

[ANDYMILLMAN]

hi guys,

here is the deal,

Just purchased my shiny 27inch imac i5

And I am looking to connect it to my speaker / amp setup I used to have my pc plugged into

the amp has two wired speakers connected to it, and on my old pc, i had the amp connected to my pc via a 2XRCA to 3.5m headphone wire...

I had the red and white RCA connected to the back of my amp and the 3.5mm end connected to the line out on my pc.

everything worked fine..

I have just attempted the same setup on my mac however I hear nothing?

I have tried both the headphone port and the one next to it on the back of the mac? but still nothing.. do i need a different cable to connect the two?

connections at back of amp (no digitial input) :-

speaker that connects amp to imac/ old pc :-

any ideas guys?

 

[spinnerlys]

Please use the TIMG tag instead of the IMG tag to make your images a little bit smaller.

The cable should work.

Have you made sure the cable is okay or that you selected the right input on your amplifier?

Have a look at System Preferences > Sound > Output and see what output device is activated while the 3.5mm jack is inside the headphone/line-out jack.
The other jack is the audio in port.

The ports on the back of the iMac.

 

[ANDYMILLMAN]

thanks very much for the reply, epic fail on my part

after checking the speakers more closely, i hadnt realised that whilst in transit, that one side of each speaker wire had comes loose at the speakers themselves !

ah well that cable worked

thanks very much !

edit

just noticed that when i actually turn the mac down to silence, via the keyboard controls...there is quite a lot of audible crackling coming from the speakers...(not noticeable really when the volume is turned up)....do you think this crackling is due to the lenght of the wire connecting the amp to the imac? it is 10m long...a little overkill now that my speakers are actually next to my imac..?

 

[spinnerlys]

edit

just noticed that when i actually turn the mac down to silence, via the keyboard controls...there is quite a lot of audible crackling coming from the speakers...(not noticeable really when the volume is turned up)....do you think this crackling is due to the lenght of the wire connecting the amp to the imac? it is 10m long...a little overkill now that my speakers are actually next to my imac..?

Is the noise still there, while you disconnected the audio cable from the amp?

As far as I know, it's the low current between the iMac and the amp, that is there if they are connected via the audio cable.
It's an analog signal, so it will go only away with a better shielded (thicker) and shorter audio cable.

And please consider using the TIMG tags. It's a cramp to scroll around those images.

 

[ANDYMILLMAN]

Is the noise still there, while you disconnected the audio cable from the amp?

As far as I know, it's the low current between the iMac and the amp, that is there if they are connected via the audio cable.
It's an analog signal, so it will go only away with a better shielded (thicker) and shorter audio cable.

And please consider using the TIMG tags. It's a cramp to scroll around those images.

edited now, apologies..

I will try a shorter cable! thanks for all your help mate

 

[bearmule]

I could be a moron but...

I have the same setup as Andymillman and had the same problem, however, this is how my issue went down.

I plugged my audio cable into the headphone port of my new 27" imac and there was no sound. I then turned my amp off and then on and the sound blipped on for a millisecond. I could get it do this same thing repeatedly but nothing more so I called my friend (the apple product wizkid friend we all have). He said to only try it with one audio input wire plugged into the amp. So i did this... and it worked but... I could only get the left speaker or right speaker to work and not both. Then I started switching the wires all around i.e. right audio cable wire into left audio input... switching actual speaker wires from left to right... etc. I was able to get both left and right speaker to finally work, however, if the volume gets too loud (by either amp volume control or volume control on imac) the amp shuts off and no sound. WTF? this is annoying. My pc laptop which is 8 years old can pump way more sound into the amp and does not have this problem at all.

Any ideas?