Hooking up mackie monitors to my G5

[Ty Ford]

[Luke Pearson] “I just bought a pair of Used Mackie HR824 monitors. I’m trying to figure out how to hook them up to my g5 mac to get the best sounding audio.

I also bought a used digidesign mbox 2 mini but apparently I’m not able to download the software for it because i’m still running os x 10.4.11. Is there a way I can still get this mbox mini to power on and work with out having to download the protools software?

>>Hello Luke and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum. OS X 10.4.11 requires Pro Tools 7 or lower.

Or is there a better way to connect these monitors to my computer in the first place? (ie. directly in using an adapter? I’m also trying to avoid the hiss that comes from adapters or cheaper cables.

>>If the Mackie monitors are powered, you can use the G5 analog output to the Mackies. You may need a small isolation transformer to scrape the junk off of the unbalanced audio feed coming out of the Mac.

Later, when you get the Pro Tools thing sorted out, you can use the Pro Tools hardware monitor out.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Luke Pearson]

would hooking them up from the analog out put on the G5 still give me stereo sound?

what kind of isolation transformer do you recommend?

thanks for the feedback ty!

Luke Pearson
http://www.LiftFilms.net

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.
-Hebrews 13:2

[Ty Ford]

Luke,

Yes, stereo. You need a 1/8″ male TRS (tip/ring/sleeve) plug to plug in to the G5 audio output.

You’ll probably want one that has two female RCA jacks on the other end. From there use a cable with RCA male plugs on one end and 1/4″ TS (tip/sleeve). You’ll need two of them, one for each channel.

They plug into the Ebtech Hum eliminator.
https://shop.ebay.com/items/ebtech%20hum%20eliminator?_dmd=1&_sop=2&rvr_id=&keyword=ebtech+hum+eliminator&crlp=1921893623_9417&MT_ID=475&tt_encode=raw

Come out of the Ebtech with cables that go to the power amp or powered monitors. These can be 1/4″ TRS male plugs for the Ebtech to Male XLR or Male 1/4″ TRS, depending on what the amp or speakers want to see.

I’m using this config on my G5 now.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Luke Pearson]

You’re a good man, Mr. Ford. Thanks for the help. I’ll give it a shot.

Luke Pearson
http://www.LiftFilms.net

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.
-Hebrews 13:2

[Richard Crowley]

I concur with Mr. Ford. That is a good solution and recommendation for isolation transformer.

Note also that it is possible that the speakers will work connected directly without any isolation transformers. Its worth a try before spending the $$$. The Mackie speakers have no power cord connection to the ground pin, so they are less likely to suffer from ground loop problems. But many of the problems with the analog line-level output from computers is more than simple ground loops.

Note also that if you just want something temporary until you get a decent audio interface, the Radio Shack 270-054 is actually not terrible. It is around $17 at most any RS storefront. It even comes with the required 3.5mm stereo mini-phone to RCA adapter cable.