External speakers for imac

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External speakers for imac

Hello, im quite new to mac, i have bought myself an imac, which i am very happy with. Now i am looking to invest in new speakers. Either genelec 6010a's or wharfdale diamonds 8.1 pro active. But i dont know how i would connect them to the imac.

Can anyone help please.

Thankyou

imac, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Dec 13, 2009 11:16 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 13, 2009 2:19 PM in response to Molax

I'm not familiar with those speakers. The speakers need to be self-powered. They connect to the audio-output port ("headphones" mini-jack).

Standard external powered speakers just use this port for analog output. You typically get two speakers and sometimes a subwoofer.

The output port can also be used as an optical digital output port, using an Toslink adapter.

[Toslink To Optical Mini Adapter|http://www.amazon.com/Toslink-To-Optical-Mini-Adapter/dp/B0002MQGRM/ref =sr 11?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1260742215&sr=8-1]

Optical digital output will allow 5.1 surround sound if the sound system has optical digital input and those additional speakers. I don't think "8.1" is possible, unless the speaker system (not the Mac) is doing special processing add those additional surround sound speakers.

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