recycling "bubble" iMac speakers

[nbusse]

I've got a 17" iMac, the now-nearly-obselete G4/800 with the distinctive "bubble" base & swivel screen. While I had problems with some of the design, I continue to LOVE the speakers that came with it. (that's pretty much the main reason I keep it around!)

They have a specialized plug (of course), it's almost 1/8" but not quite. I mentioned my frustration about this to an employee at the Mac store, who said there used to be a 3rd-party adaptor plug for this. which, of course, Mac won't sell because it's 3rd party... That would probably have been about 5 years ago, when this was still considered a good machine!

Does anyone have info about where to buy this 'ancient' adaptor plug? I'd love to snag the speakers off this & use it with my MBP....

thanks, happy music-ing!

 

[reddrag0n]

What you are looking for is an obsolete product called the iFire. What it does is connect the Apple Pro Speakers (non USB) to any PC or Mac via a firewire plug.
I did some searching on eBay and all i found was this. Other than that, maybe you can mod the speakers to use a small amplifier and a regular headphone jack.

 

[CWallace]

So I am guessing the speakers drew their power over FireWire?

And do they use a 2.5mm audio plug/jack?

 

[reddrag0n]

So I am guessing the speakers drew their power over FireWire?

And do they use a 2.5mm audio plug/jack?

No, originally they used that little 2.5 mm plug. The Digital Audio, Quicksilver, MDD, and iMac G4's only had that little plug to power the speakers. The firewave and iFire's allow that plug to be converted into a more useful plug (firewire) to power the speakers for sound.