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EarlofCroydon

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 4, 2010
72
0
Bought this nice system from a car boot and as with my last system i can only ever get 2 speakers active because i have a x2 phono lead to headphone which you can obviously just connect to 2 speakers :S. My sound knowledge is very poor but can you get a x4 or x6 phono to headphone jack lead anywhere?

Cheers :):apple:
 

Vylen

macrumors 65816
Jun 3, 2010
1,026
0
Sydney, Australia
Bought this nice system from a car boot and as with my last system i can only ever get 2 speakers active because i have a x2 phono lead to headphone which you can obviously just connect to 2 speakers :S. My sound knowledge is very poor but can you get a x4 or x6 phono to headphone jack lead anywhere?

Cheers :):apple:

Not quite - it doesn't work that way.

If your 5.1ch system uses only 3 2.5mm headphone jacks then you're screwed. Can't use them on an iMac...

Unless you can find a Griffin FireWave:
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/firewave

They discontinued them a couple years back. Essentially an external firewire sound card so you can use 5.1ch surround sound.
 

Vylen

macrumors 65816
Jun 3, 2010
1,026
0
Sydney, Australia
Right, RCA connectors (aka phono leads).

Nope. Still doesn't work that way.

You could probably get away with buying 3 of the 2x phono lead to headphone jacks and using the Griffin FireWave.

Otherwise, the only thing you can do is buy a stereo amplifier that uses RCA/phono out and optical input.

The iMac's headphone jack is a hybrid analogue/digital out so it can output 5.1 channel surround sound using optical cable.

So using an optical cable to connect to an amplifier, and connecting your speakers to the amplifier is probably the best solution.
 
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