Connecting 2 sets of speakers to a G4
hi, i am trying to figure out how to go about hooking up an additional set of speakers to my G4, which has my itunes library on it. i don't want to go wireless, just want to know what i need to do in order to add an additional set of speakers for my living room. not sure what i need... an amp? a mixer? i'm not the smartest with this stuff, so any help would be great. the speakers i have hooked up now sound great, i just want to attach another set in another room. is this possible without too much hassle? thanks!
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You probably have some kind of powered speaker set up for your current desktop rig, possibly with sub. Unfortunately, that makes a poor candidate for the easiest solution, which would be a cheap A/B speaker switch. That's because such switches are generally passive devices that expect to see speaker level signal (like what comes off the back of an amp) and uses a bit of circuitry to safely send that to either or both of two sets of speakers. The typical computer satellite/sub rig takes the line output of your G4 and sends it straight into the sub, which is also an amp and a crossover (you most likely don't want to know), which then sends the amplified and band limited stuff the satellites. Or, if just a pair of speakers, the amp is in one of the pair. Either way, you don't get access to the speaker level signal you want.
You could try splitting the signal where it comes out of the G4, and send that to a second set of powered speakers (or an amp and speaker set-up), but I wouldn't recommend it.
So failing that, probably the easiest (and best sounding) solution would be to get a proper little integrated amp that has accommodations for A and B speakers (selectable from the front panel). If you have a stereo receiver, that will probably work as well (if it has provisions for two pairs of speakers). Going with a real amp is going to be a good idea anyway, because the amp in the average desktop speaker system isn't really designed to do much more than drive the little bitty satellite speakers to kinda loud, with something less than 100% distortion.
Run the output of your G4 into that (you'll need a stereo mini to double RCA adapter), then hook up your speakers to the two sets of speaker terminals on the back of the amp.
If you have an amp or a receiver and it doesn't do the A/B thing, you could then use a cheap external A/B switch.
Wireless and Airtunes would be a lot easier, though-- you just wouldn't be able to play back on your desktop and the second room at the same time.