How to get sound from Mini to Z5500's?

[BenCO]

Hello all I just got my first Mac Mini and am trying to figure out how to connect my Logitech Z-5500 speakers to it. I'm only familiar with PC's where you plus the green, orange and black 3.5mm plugs into the sounds card.

I have an optical cable and i'm sure an optical to 3.5mm adapter would work? I have the optical plugged into my cable box right now so is there another way to get sound?

I honestly have no clue how to get sound from this thing, i'm a noob when it comes to audio inputs and outputs.

Thanks.

 

[calderone]

Well you have a single line out, but that line out can do analog or digital.

For analog, you want to use a standard 3.5mm analog cable. Which can of course be in any analog flavor on the other end, like stereo RCA.

You cannot go analog to digital without expensive equipment, however, you don't need to.

Because the same output on the mini handles optical. You simply need a mini optical cable. For example:

http://www.amazon.com/6ft-Toslink-Mini-Cable/dp/B000FMXKC8

Since the Z5500's have an optical input (I think), I would go that route.

 

[BenCO]

Thanks for the info.

The way i have it setup right now is like this:

Digital cable -> HD Comcast box.

Optical cable -> XBOX 360

Then i had the old standard green, black, orange 3.5mm cables used to go from my PC to the Logitech's. So if i use an optical or digital/coax cable i'll lose function to one of the others? Is there another way to do this? I bought these Z-5500's probably 5 years ago, am i better off with another setup?

This Mac Mini is hooked up to my TV so it's primarily going to be for streaming Netflix and watching movies, but i don't want to lose function to my cable box and xbox if i can avoid it.

Hope that makes sense, and again thanks for the help.

 

[BenCO]

Sorry another post.

I went out and got an optical to 3.5mm cable just now from Apple. Plugged it into my Logitech's and it doesn't output to them. Looking in sound prefs i only see my tv (HDMI) and internal speakers. No option for the Z-5500's.

What am i missing here???

 

[calderone]

What did you buy exactly? Send me a link?

If you bought something like this: http://store.apple.com/us/product/TL955LL/A

You bought mini-toslink to toslink, which is digital. In which case you want to choose "Digital Output."

 

[BenCO]

What did you buy exactly? Send me a link?

If you bought something like this: http://store.apple.com/us/product/TL955LL/A

You bought mini-toslink to toslink, which is digital. In which case you want to choose "Digital Output."

I think i got it actually. It needed to go into the headphone port. But it is playing through my Logitech's now.

I bought the monster cable/airport audio set for $40 but i don't think i need that now that i look at it.

I don't understand why it needs to be in the headphone jack and not the audio output though?

Thanks for your help, i dropped close to a G on Apple stuff today so i just want it to work properly, kind of in that freak out mode when i should just calm down

 

[Mal]

The other jack on there isn’t an audio output, btw. If you glance at your user guide or Apple.com, you’ll find that it’s actually an audio input, which explains why it wasn’t outputting audio to your speakers.

The Monster kit is probably overkill, just the audio cable that’s working now is all you need.

jW

 

[calderone]

The headphone jack is the audio out. It can do analog and digital output.

The other is the audio in.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1562

 

[BenCO]

The headphone jack is the audio out. It can do analog and digital output.

The other is the audio in.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1562

Thanks fellas. My mistake, lesson learned

Seems i went and bought that audio kit prematurely, gonna return it and grab just the optical to 3.5mm.

 

[calderone]

Thanks fellas. My mistake, lesson learned

Seems i went and bought that audio kit prematurely, gonna return it and grab just the optical to 3.5mm.

To be clear, it is toslink to mini-toslink.

The 3.5mm end is actually optical (digital), not analog. I say this because 3.5mm is typically associated with analog.

 

[BenCO]

To be clear, it is toslink to mini-toslink.

The 3.5mm end is actually optical (digital), not analog. I say this because 3.5mm is typically associated with analog.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm very audio deficient as i'm sure you can guess.

Seems it's running well now, i'll just have to swap cables when i play my XBOX to get sound out of the Z-5500's which won't be a big deal since i play it about 15 times a year at most