Cube! with all the trimmings :D

[Bunsen]

AU$152.50 (US$128)

450MHz/20GB/DVD-ROM/RAGE 128 16MB ADC VGA

Ball speakers and amplifier

Apple keyboard, MS mouse

17-inch Apple Studio Display (ADC flat face CRT)

Auction photo attached - photos of it set up and running to come.

Yay!!!!!!

 

[joshc]

And now you can spend even more, upgrading it further with a faster CPU, bigger hard drive, and so on.

 

[Bunsen]

... and strip it down into a CC or SE case

I've already got a dual 533 doing service in my DA tower. I might consider a better duallie for that and hand-me-down the 2x533 to the Cube. Not sure how much RAM it's sporting at the moment, but I will most certainly max it out, and consider a better dual-head video card as well.

Hmmm, speaking of which, anyone got any recommendations for AGP video cards? The ADC is nice, but not essential. DVI/VGA and S-Video/composite would be better. S-Video or composite capture would be lovely.

 

[Mars478]

Awesome! I want me a cube!

 

[~Coxy]

What does the amplifier for the ball speakers take? I've got a "pair of balls" from my old iMac G4; it would be good if there were amplifiers available to use them with other devices.

 

[Byrd]

Welcome to the Cube club Bunsen! Mine is my primary Mac and I still think it's got a few good years left in it. Regarding suitable video cards, the Apple Radeon 7500 is a nice choice (ADC, DVI but no TV-output), while the flashed XFX "WANG" model Geforce 6200 256MB AGP is a pearler if you can find it (which I did ~ 18 months ago at the Box Hill computer swap meet, cost $90).

Keep in mind with any upgrade you will need to install a base fan, and I'd think those dual 533s would work quite nicely with a modded heatsink your Cube ... clocked to 600?

JB

 

[Bunsen]

Coxy: the speakers and amp as-is are only compatible with the USB outs on certain Macs, contemporary to the Cube and Digital Audio G4 (the DA designation in fact ~only~ means that they are compatible with these speakers). [NB: see correction in next post] I believe Griffin make an amp/adapter to use them with a standard audio output.

Your other option would be cutting and stripping the leads to the balls and wiring them directly to a suitable amp. A multimeter will tell you their nominal resistance - just find a small amp to match. One of those nifty Tripath chipset digital amps would perhaps be ideal. They are small, cheap, low powered and deadly accurate from what I've been reading.

 

[Bunsen]

Posting from my Cube now. It was loaded with 10.4.something, and Software Update is doing its magic in the background.

Seems like this came along just in time, as my iMac has just carked it.

What does the amplifier for the ball speakers take? I've got a "pair of balls" from my old iMac G4; it would be good if there were amplifiers available to use them with other devices.

~Coxy: the info I gave you above is a little off: the Cube speakers and the Apple Pro Speakers that came with the iLamp are not the same item. However, according to the link below, the actual speaker part of the speakers should be the same as yours, even though they connect to the Mac differently:

the new Apple Pro Speakers, which are, what do you know, Cube speakers with a headphone-like plug and no amplifier box

Harman/Kardon Compatibility Guide

Given that yours are just straight speakers wired to a funky we-must-be-different Apple connector, you should be able to just strip the wires and connect them direct to an appropriately rated amplifier. I may do that to mine at some stage - but wire in a plug and socket so I can re-connect them to the Cube amp when I want to.

A less destructive alternative would be to desolder the socket from a dead compatible Mac motherboard and wire up your own adapter: to RCA plugs, bare wires, jacks, or direct into a kit amp.

this connector is found only on G4 towers (not Cubes) made January 2001 and later.

NB the article is from 2001, so I guess the iLamp wasn't out then.

The speakers are 10 watts each - no idea if they are 4 ohm or 8 ohm impedance. I'm not about to slice up my new shinies to measure them directly, sorry You should be able to measure them yourself with a multimeter - set it to resistance and poke random pairs of the connectors on the plug. You'll either read 0, infinity, or, when you hit the right pair, something close to either 4 or 8 (maybe 16). And then let me know

The iMac slotloader speakers are about 2.5W 4 ohm: power deduced from the fact that there are four of them in each of the 10W a side SoundSticks, and impedance (resistance)* measured myself.

Remember - an amp rated for more power (watts) per channel is -less- likely to damage your speakers than one rated for lower power. Counterintuitive but true - it's overdriving a puny amp that fries speakers. On the other hand, don't try to run 4 ohm speakers from an 8 ohm amplifier - you risk frying the amp. If it says it'll do 4 ohms and 8 (often 4-16ohm), and >10W a side, then you're golden.

* Yes, i know impedance and resistance are not the same thing. The approximation you get by reading their DC resistance is close enough

 

[Dog Cow]

Nice! I remember when those first came out. :beige:

 

[Bunsen]

desolder the socket from a dead compatible Mac

Apple technote:

Apple Pro Speakers: Compared to Power Mac G4 Cube Speakers

==============================================================================
Characteristic   | Apple Pro Speakers | Power Mac G4 Cube Speakers
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power Source     | Apple Speaker port | USB
Sound Connection | Apple Speaker port | USB
iSub             | compatible         | compatible with Mac OS X 10.1 or later
==============================================================================

The following computers have an Apple Speaker sound output port:

* Power Mac G4 (Digital Audio, QuickSilver, QuickSilver 2002, Mirrored Drive Doors, FW 800)

* iMac (Flat Panel, 17-inch Flat Panel, 1GHz Flat Panel, USB 2.0)

iMac (Flat Panel), Power Mac G4 (Digital Audio) and (QuickSilver): Sound Output Ports

Apple Speaker Sound Output Port
/ is a 2.5 mm stereo mini jack.

/ The Apple Speakers include an internal ROM that enables the computer to identify the speakers.

/

Sound Circuitry

Power Mac G4

/

The sound circuitry includes a signal processing IC that handles the equalization and volume control functions, a codec IC that performs analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion, and a digital power amplifier /

iMac (Flat Panel)

/

The custom sound circuitry includes a signal processing IC for equalization and volume control functions and a codec IC for A/D (analog to digital) and D/A (digital to analog) conversion. / A dedicated 18 watt internal digital amplifier

There might be more than just a socket worth scavenging from those dead motherboards }

 

[~Coxy]

Yeah, I was thinking that it would be better to buy a 2.5mm minijack socket rather than desolder it from the iLamp board, but it's all a bit of a moot point anyway because I sold off the iLamp years ago! The PSU had died and then I foolishly managed to break the rest of it while attempting an ATX modification, but the person who got a replacement screen for his one was happy.

I have to clean out the shed sometime soon; when I do I'll pull out my speakers and measure their impedance for you.

 

[Bunsen]

buy a 2.5mm minijack socket

The hard part is going to be finding one that matches - it's non-standard. IIRC, longer than normal and with four contacts rather than the usual 2 or 3

 

[H3NRY]

The chip inside the Cube's amplifier module is a TriPath TA1101B 20W digital amplifier, so indeed a TriPath amp is a terrific match for these speakers. They are 8 Ohm impedance. The TriPath amp is a BTL output design (neither speaker wire is grounded - like a car radio) so the plug on a DA G4 has to have 4 contacts. I assume the DA has the same TriPath chip (anybody with a DA G4 confirm that?) The speakers themselves seem to come from 2 Asian suppliers to H-K, the silver frame / black surround jobbies from one, the white frame - white surround ones from another, but both have the same specs. They are quite nice drivers from the H-K / JBL Odyssey series.

 

[macgeek417]

No fair! I've always wanted a cube.

 

[Bunsen]

H3NRY, I noticed elsewhere that you've been inside the Cube speaker's amp module and (IIRC) made some mods. How do you open the little tacker non-destructively? And did you ever find a point to input analogue line-level audio?

 

[H3NRY]

How do you open the little tacker non-destructively?

I just pried at the seam with a knife and it cracked open, luckily along the seams. YMMV as they say.

The input pins on the TA1101 are pins 10 and 13, but when I tried to feed a signal in there, all I got was screeches and oscillation and I quit before I blew something up. Find the data sheets for the TriPath TA1101B and the Micronas UAC 3552A USB DAC if you want to know the down and dirty on that amp. The other major part is a 5V to 12V step-up DC-DC converter to power the TriPath chip. The TA1101 puts out 10W/chan into 4 Ohms, and both sets of speakers I have measure 8.1-8.3 Ohms DC resistance, which makes their 1 KHz impedance probably 9 or 10 Ohms, so the true power is more like 4 or 5 Watts per speaker. Plenty for computer listening, not enough for a rock & roll party.

 

[H3NRY]

Have you seen this? A T-amp kit for $20:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-385

 

[Bunsen]

That's about the standard price for kits that I've seen on ebay - or even less! And as they mostly ship from Hong Kong or mainland China, it ends up cheaper for us southerners.

Information on hacking and improving the Chinese T-amp kits is here: http://minirig.org.au/