Hi,
I’ve inherited a really cool art deco Aegis external speaker.
I think it’s this model (https://images.app.goo.gl/B9xJYADhUfFskHzR9) though the colour is darker.
Anyway, I was wondering if it would be possible to use it as an external speaker for my home Mac by hooking it up to an amplifier like the Lepai LP-2020A.
I realise this not at all practical, given the availability of super cheap Bluetooth speakers but I have a sentimental attachment to this one.
I have zero experience with these things and so I was hoping to trespass on the collective wisdom of all of you.
Any thoughts would be welcomed!
Cheers
Jeff

Does the Mac have an output for analogue headphones?
If so, you could probably drive it directly.

Hi Ian,
Thanks for the reply.
I don't think it does. I am pretty ignorant about electronics but my understanding was that most external computer speakers had their own amplifiers. The Aegis speaker lacks any power -- it's just a speaker, nothing else.
Cheers,
Jeff

If you cannot connect the speaker directly to your audio from the Mac, ref Ians post above, a simple amplifier is called for.
The Lepai would work, but I see it as an overkill, it's big and being stereo, you would only use half of it.
I would be inclined to use one of the Jaycar amplifier projects, simple to construct and would fit inside the Aegis case. Jaycar part no. KC5152 is 1/2 watt and KG9032 is 1 watt output.
Harold

Why not turn the Aegis speaker into a Bluetooth speaker? Way more versatility - phone, laptop, etc!

A cheap Bluetooth receiver/amplifier connected to the speaker would easily fit inside the case.

As an iMac user for years they DO have a Headphone socket or more correctly DID as some of the more recent Mac's seemed to have altered the traditional 3.5mm Stereo socket for some other odd ball setup.

What model iMac do you have??? as on the rear of the screen there are usually a heap of sockets such as USB etc etc and most time a 3.5mm diam HEADPHONE socket which is Stereo.

Using a 3.5mm Stereo plug & cable assembly simply plug one end into your Mac and the other end into a suitable amplifier which in your case will have to be a Mono amp as you only have ONE speaker...your Aegis.

Thus you will have to combine the Stereo output into a Mono output to suit your amp and easiest way is to connect both audio feeds in the cable together by using a 10K ohm resistor in each leg from the cable going to the Mac and then common them together going into your amplifier.

If you are considering using one of those Jaycar kits to build up as an amp then a neat solution will be to use a 3.5mm to 3.5mm stereo cord and one end into your mac and the other end into a 3.5mm socket on the amp then take the 2 x 10K splitter resistors I mentioned above and wire one each to the Tip and Ring connection on the socket and common their output into a volume control on the amp which is an optional extra it seems.
Then connect the SLEEVE connector which is effectively ground to the common side of the amplifier and you are in business with your Aegis hooked to the amp output.

Mount the amp and socket in the speaker case somewhere.

I frequently plug my iMac into my home cinema stereo amp setup and it sounds great particularly if you wish to play music stored on your computer of which I have hundreds of tracks on there and set the iMac to shuffle and it plays the entire library in a random manner. Good background music source.

Lindsay

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions! Much appreciated!
Maybe I will try the bluetooth idea, as per MonochromeTV! I'll let you know if I get it to work!

Scattered around the American Radio Forum, are several ideas on coupling things like iPad & such to principally tube radios.

Info on the output of these things is scarce & a lot use a dynamic earphone, suggesting its part of a transistors collector circuit. One way of providing both stereo to mono & isolation is done with transistor radio audio transformers.

That could then be fed into a mono amp matched for the speaker.

You can get Bluetooth modules that directly drive a speaker. Easy.