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Severed Hand of Skywalker · May 22, 2003, 01:15 AM

If I take my old USB cube speakers is it safe to plug it into a new G4 tower? I know they have some sort of power adapter along the line.

joe · May 22, 2003, 07:21 AM

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:
If I take my old USB cube speakers is it safe to plug it into a new G4 tower? I know they have some sort of power adapter along the line.

I've been able to use my Cube OEM speakers with my dual 533 DA Tower via my ADC monitor's built in USB ports. I've done this with both of my ADC monitors (17" CRT and 15" LCD). What I'm doing is swapping the ADC cable from the back of the Cube to the tower (both turned off). I leave my KB, mouse, and Cube USB speakers plugged into my ADC monitor. The 1st time I tried this the tower still used the built-in front speaker. I had to go into the sound prefs and select USB speakers once. Ever since the tower will automatically switch to my Cube speakers if available. IOGear is suppose to be coming out with an ADC switchbox that will let me do this on the fly without powering down.

Not sure if you're using an ADC monitor or not. But I'd guess you'd be OK plugging the speakers directly into your tower. ISTR reading that the ADC monitors supply extra power to their on-board USB ports. I've noticed my Cube speakers are quieter if I plug them directly into one of the Cube's USB ports intead of the ADC monitor's USB ports. Maybe the same thing will happen with your setup. regards........joe

starman · May 22, 2003, 08:07 AM

I don't see why not - they're just USB speakers like the SoundSticks.

Mike

Severed Hand of Skywalker · May 22, 2003, 10:35 AM

I am worried that the built in power adapter would cause some problems as the regular Pro Speakers do not have them.

starman · May 22, 2003, 11:11 AM

Well I'm sure you're not the first person to ask this. Did you check out xlr8yourmac.com?

Mike

Severed Hand of Skywalker · May 22, 2003, 10:44 PM

Well I tried it and it works if it plug it into the monitor port. Not that loud though.

Alphy · May 23, 2003, 05:47 AM

Originally posted by starman:
I don't see why not - they're just USB speakers like the SoundSticks.

Mike

These aren't just any ordinary USB speakers.

Back to the question.

Yes it is safe to plug your cube speakers to the new towers. However, it will be a lot softer as the current towers usb ports don't have enough power to drive these speakers.

The cube speakers are 10 Watt speakers which draw the power from the usb port. These so called 10 watt usb ports ( which isn't standard on the usb specs) are only found on the cube, 17 crt/cd, 22" and the former towers when the cubes were released.

I'm sure that the 20 " doesn't supply the 10 watts needed, but dont know about the 23" lcds.

starman · May 23, 2003, 08:19 AM

http://www.cubeowner.com/forums//ind...;hl=sound&

Done.

Mike

Skywalkers new Hand · May 23, 2003, 01:07 PM

So yes they do work on the 20' LCD but they are at half volume. Well good enough I guess.

angelmb · May 23, 2003, 04:16 PM

Once I read a Apple technical note, it said that although Cube and Apple Pro Speakers looks very similar, if not identical, the speakers that come with the Cube were made exclusively for the Cube, at least you only can use with the Cube their 'original from factory speakers', so I can not say you can use them with a tower Power Mac.

michaelb · May 24, 2003, 07:30 AM

I once plugged my Cube speakers into a PowerBook and they worked fine. Though I can't recall them being quiet, I suppose they must have quieter than the Cube if the USB ports have less power available.

But they were loud enough to watch a DVD on the PowerBook.

Actually they're just rolling around in a drawer at the moment (they're like big marbles) as I mostly use my Cube as a headless server - my most recent dual-G4 gets to use the cinema display. Cubes are still ultra cool things to have humming away in a corner though.