what the heck is this??!!

[solrac]

I'm listening to music on the TiBook. Pretty good speakers but tinny compared to real speakers. So I'm at the office and I'm like ahh, maybe there's speakers lying around? I found a pair of OLD speakers from the 80s with a standard headphone plug but they were too old. The sound was horrible. Then I was like wait! There's a new iMac in the other room! So I took the Apple Pro Speakers from there (like the ones my Cube used to have!) Those were great!

No. They don't fit into the headphone jack. No.

no.
No. No. no. No.

why.

 

[nkuvu]

I believe the proprietary jack for the pro speakers is due to the fact that they're powered speakers, and obviously they don't have an external power cord.

Just a guess (based on some speculation I heard).

 

[edX]

hmm, i can't make a square peg fit in a round hole. why is that?

 

[solrac]

ummm no.. more like

why is the peg square when all the millions and billions of other pegs are round?

WHYYY is the peg SQUARE??????????

 

[benpoole]

Because the speakers are powered. You already got an answer!!

 

[Hypernate]

See the outer ring on the plug? It's one of the two parts for the power. If you could plug it into headphone ports, you couldn't use them, because they wouldn't have enough power.

What makes me laugh is that Apple offeres them as an option with the iBook on their AppleStore, even though they're useless there, too.

 

[benpoole]

I just checked the Apple Store, and the powered speakers are not offered as an option for iBooks at all.

I checked the UK store, and the Aus one. Also, I read about the powered speakers. Both stores state:

"Currently, Apple Pro Speakers should only be used with the new G4-based iMac or the Power Mac with minijack."

 

[deanmcg]

OK so I know the discussion is about the Pro speakers but why not try the (more expensive) Harmon Kardon Sounds sticks? They do look and sound great.

 

[cybergoober]

Originally posted by deanmcg
OK so I know the discussion is about the Pro speakers but why not try the (more expensive) Harmon Kardon Sounds sticks? They do look and sound great.

He probably didn't have any lying around, like the other speakers were.

Love my SoundSticks BTW!

 

[satanicpoptart]

does anybody know the wattage on teh sound sticks?>

 

[ladavacm]

Originally posted by satanicpoptart
does anybody know the wattage on teh sound sticks?>

20 (sub) + 2*10 (satellites)
Very clean and almost ideal for classical music; due to the lack of distortion, they do not feel loud, but the neighbors complain

 

[Hypernate]

Originally posted by benpoole
I just checked the Apple Store, and the powered speakers are not offered as an option for iBooks at all.

I checked the UK store, and the Aus one. Also, I read about the powered speakers. Both stores state:

"Currently, Apple Pro Speakers should only be used with the new G4-based iMac or the Power Mac with minijack."

They've obviously changed it since I last looked. They used to have it in the second set of options. Ah well

Edit: Well if you go to the second set of options, and you add Pro Speakers, it will let you order, which could be confusing for first time buyers. Ah well

 

[simX]

Note that the Pro Speakers have NEVER worked with Apple's laptops. The USB ones that they used to sell require bus power, and the laptops can't provide that to the speakers. I tried plugging in my Pro Speakers to my dad's TiBook, and it didn't do anything (although they were G4 cube speakers).

 

[Bluefusion]

Ahh, don't waste money on the soundsticks! Sure, they look nice, but they sound like crap compared to most cheaper sets. Try Altec Lansing ATP3s for $80 (my personal fave, as they look nice, sound AMAZING, and are decently priced), Monsoon MM702s for $150 (some people swear by them but I don't find them to sound any better than the Altecs), or, if you really don't care either way but want decent sound in a tiny package, Cambridge PCWorks for $30 (yes, they sound pretty goddamn good for their size and price!--you wouldn't believe what they can crank out! although definitely not as good as higher-end ones, they still sound better than TiBook speakers...)

Seriously, I loved the Pro Speakers so much on my iMac that I bought an iSub, which makes the whole thing look great, but guess what? It sounds awful. The SoundSticks do sound a bit better, but they're acrylic, which makes the overall sound far too harsh IMO. The Altecs (and most other really good systems) have a wooden subwoofer for low-frequency resonance. Cheap systems have plastic subs, like the Cambridge PCWorks, but they are cheap...)