Speakers for PowerMac G4 Sawtooth

[corolla2]

I recently obtained a PowerMac G4 AGP Sawtooth and was trying to find some speakers to go with it, since it does have a speaker port. It seems the Apple Pro speakers are listed for PowerMac models Gigabit and later. Can anyone suggest speakers that are compatible with the Sawtooth? Thank you.

 

[Hrududu]

Any standard 3.5mm analog speakers will work just fine with it. Even the later models that came with the Apple Pro Speakers still have a standard 3.5mm minijack.

 

[corolla2]

I would really like to get the Apple Pro speakers, but I have read they have a proprietary Apple mini-jack that is not present on the Sawtooth. The Pro speakers in used product listings usually say they work in the G4 Digital Audio and later, and earlier models would have to have an adapter, such as the Griffin iFire. I have found these are very scarce and can sell for $200.

 

[rudiger10]

I'm interested in this too as I recently got a Sawtooth G4 as well.

 

[corolla2]

The problem here is with jacks: the Sawtooth's speaker jack is a standard 3.5 mm, while later G4s (starting with Digital Audio) have a 3.2 mm Apple only jack for the Pro speakers.

After about a half day's research, I found that if you want to attach Apple Pro Speakers to the G4 Sawtooth, you should get the iFire or PowerWave adapters sold by Griffin a few years ago. But BEWARE -- these items are now scarce, and iFire can cost $100; PowerWave is now $150-$200.

Other people have "hacked" the Pro Speakers, as shown on this page: http://www.applefritter.com/node/3904.

The Mac Cube speakers are similar and have a USB connector. But they must be plugged into a higher power USB port, such as that on the Cube, or the port on a Cinema Display. Apple recommends against using the standard ports on your computer or keyboard.

Since I have an acrylic 22" Cinema Display with the Sawtooth, I ultimately ended up getting Cube speakers, because they are close in resemblance to the Pro ones, and they can plug into the display.

Yet another option are Harman-Kardon SoundSticks, which have been brought back onto the market and coordinate well with late '90s, early 2000s PowerMacs. You can get these for $50 to $100, depending on if you buy new or used.