Apple Pro Speakers - extend length of the cord?

[geerlingguy]

I remembered the old family iMac G4 had a set of Apple Pro Speakers, and they sounded pretty good. The setup was nice, too—you just pop the plug into the jack on the iMac, and set the speakers on the side. No power required, and they sounded better than my old Altec-Lansing pair even without a subwoofer.

Fast forward [many years] and I have a G4 MDD, and bought a used set of working Pro Speakers.

I went to plug them in, then realized the cord is basically only compatible with the iMac, sitting in the middle of the speaker pair. I could kind of get the speakers to reach the jack on the MDD if I angle it a little towards the display, and have the speakers at an awkward angle passing under the middle of the Cinema Display.

I remember hearing Griffin had a little Apple Pro Speaker extension cable (I'm sure for a pretty penny back then), but are there any other simple ways to extend the cable? I would love to place the speakers a little outside the monitor for better stereo sound.

Alternatively, would it be anathema to splice in a longer cable on the end? The speakers work and sound great, just the cable length is insanely short. Took Apple a lot of 'courage' to sell a G4 tower with the Apple Pro Speaker connector!

 

[geerlingguy]

Ah... after posting this, I found a thread on MacRumors: Pro speakers cable extension

It looks like there was actually a different set of Apple Pro Speakers for the Mac Pro (TIL), and they had a longer cable than the iMac set. Sheesh! I should be able to extend the cables, though, and that makes me happy

 

[Phipli]

There are also USB "Sound Sticks" - a 2.1 setup that work with more systems... Including my Linux laptop

But... You already have the pro speakers so makes most sense to start there. It's a good idea to extend at the speaker end (I think that is what the person in the link did) because you can just desolder the cable ends and attach in more wire, but perhaps use better wire than the ethernet cable they sounded like they were thinking of using.

How hard are the speakers to open? If I remember they are two half spheres, with like latch type clips around the join. At least the clear plastic means you can see how they are clipped together!

 

[Phipli]

Hah, ok. They come apart in a really weird way. Just watched the video on the other thread.

 

[finkmac]

There are also USB "Sound Sticks" - a 2.1 setup that work with more systems... Including my Linux laptop

the USB Sound Sticks (and USB iSub) are one of the few speakers that will play the power chime on a G4 cube
that and the USB pro speakers...

 

[geerlingguy]

the USB Sound Sticks (and USB iSub) are one of the few speakers that will play the power chime on a G4 cube
that and the USB pro speakers...

Yeah; in my case I just love the vibe of the little circle speakers; I have more attachment to them since I played through all of Myst III and Myst IV on that iMac with those speakers. Only a couple people I knew had the sound sticks. I was jealous of that setup (especially with the iSub) but it doesn't have the same bit of nostalgia

I would likely buy some shielded speaker wire if I extend the wire. I used to have a ton left over but a few years ago scrapped all my old wire since the box was getting quite heavy. Ah well...