Pro Speakers on a regular stereo

[Donald]

I was thinking of hooking up a set of Apple Pro Speakers to my stereo. Does anyone have any information about the maximum wattage and other technical info? I'd have to cut the speakers apart to hook them to my receiver. Has anyone tried this before and could give me instructions? Thanks in advance.
Donald

 

[iMeowbot]

The Mac amp drives them at 10W apiece, but they're made to handle up to 18. No info on impedance, sorry, but from the size of the coil I'd guess it's something close to conventional.

An alternative to cutting up cables would be to get a Griffin PowerWave. It's mainly intended to be used as a USB speaker adapter, but can drive the Pro speakers from an analog source too. The $100 list might be a bit much to make this a reasonable alternative if you're willing to get out the cutters, of course.

 

[G5orbust]

Well, the Apple pro speakers are not worth the work youd have to put in to get them to work. They are, first off, 2.0 speakers with no room for any additional speakers, nor a subwoofer; not to mention the sound the speakers produce is hardly satisfactory and skates by because of the styling and price ($59.99 is high, but lower than it could be). They require a propriety plug that only Apple uses. This plug delivers only 2.0 sound and powers the small speakers.

So, in the short and the long of it, you would have to find a way to convert them to regular stereo output (1/8"minijack) and have a separate wiring job just to power them. In all, you'll spend so much time on the project that it probably would be just better to lay down 100$ on a 5.1 set that work out of box.

 

[rainman::|:|]

the iFire does pretty much what you want-- for $40. it needs standard input, and firewire for a power source (it's meant for computers, not other equipment), so you'd either need to power it with your computer or perhaps an iPod charger would work... something to get powered firewire into the amp.

not the most ideal, probably, but it works...

edit: an iPod power adaptor will indeed work safely.

pnw

 

[G5orbust]

Originally posted by paulwhannel
the iFire does pretty much what you want-- for $40. it needs standard input, and firewire for a power source (it's meant for computers, not other equipment), so you'd either need to power it with your computer or perhaps an iPod charger would work... something to get powered firewire into the amp.

not the most ideal, probably, but it works...

edit: an iPod power adaptor will indeed work safely.

pnw

Leave it to Griffin to solve problems.

 

[manitoubalck]

The pro speakers sound terrible, If you have a stereo why would you be looking to downgrade.?

 

[Donald]

Thanks for the info. I have a pair on my Mac and they don't sound to bad to me, although I'm not a audio-phile and have a tin ear to boot. I was going to get them off a freind fairly cheap, and since I have a pair of 10 year old radio shack speakers now, anything may be an improvement. I have sloped ceilings as well so the small size was also a factor. G5orbust, you said they would need a seperate power source, what do you mean? I couldn't rewire them and hook them to my tuner? Please keep in mind I have no knowledge of speakers or wiring. Thanks again, all.
Donald

 

[rainman::|:|]

these speakers need some sort of amp, as do any speakers, even tiny speakers and headphones have a small amp. it's the difference between the headphone/speaker jack and line out jack-- line out isn't amped. anyway, your tuner probably puts out line or headphone amp, which is not enough electricity to power the speakers. the ifire that i mentioned above is simply an amp for these speakers.

and, imho, the pro speakers aren't that bad... some people are quite happy with them. it all depends on what you want out of the speakers...

pnw

 

[manitoubalck]

Don anythign is an improvement on the apple pro speakers (even bose , well maybe not) but connecting speakers is easy. Black to black, -red to red. But if you have hi-fi speakers you will need an amp/Reciever to power them since most Hi-fi speakers are passive. Active speakers have inbuilt amps and don't need to be powered.

Anyway if you've got the room and the money I recomend the Energy C5's. www.energy-speakers.com The best speakers I could find for my budget.

 

[Cash68]

these speakers need some sort of amp, as do any speakers, even tiny speakers and headphones have a small amp. it's the difference between the headphone/speaker jack and line out jack-- line out isn't amped. anyway, your tuner probably puts out line or headphone amp, which is not enough electricity to power the speakers. the ifire that i mentioned above is simply an amp for these speakers.

and, imho, the pro speakers aren't that bad... some people are quite happy with them. it all depends on what you want out of the speakers...

pnw

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but you're just totally 100% completely ****ing wrong. A reguler reciever will power these things just fine. Speakers don't care what kind of amp they're hooked up to. If I wanted, I could cut apart my ipod earbuds and hook up the wires to the speaker connections on the back of my receiver and blow them up instantly, if I felt like it. And considering this guy has radioshack speakers, I find it highly doubtful he has a super powerful marantz for an amplifier/tuner/receiver.

In any event, go for it, just cut tehm apart and seperate the wiring so you know what's what. They should work on a small shelf system just fine, or even a normal stereo as long as you don't crank up the power much.

PS: There were two kinds of pro speakers. 1 had foam surrounds, and came with the powermacs. The other had white butyl rubber surrounds, and came with the g4 imacs. The rubber surround'd pro speakers actually sound pretty decent... tighter bass, better response, better highs. The spherical enclosure is actually one of the best shapes for a speaker possible, though these are more for looks than function.