Editing AppleDesign Powered Speakers (section)

== Connections ==
[[File:AppleDesign Powered Speakers (M6082) rear panel.jpg|thumb|300px|Rear panel of an original main speaker, model M6082: speaker-wire terminals at the top; computer input, a jack marked with a loudspeaker symbol, CD RCA inputs and the 15 V DC input at the bottom (photo: Gona.eu, CC BY-SA 3.0)]]
The original speakers have four connections on the main unit:<ref name="til12266" />
* the computer input, a 3.5 mm stereo jack wired sleeve ground, ring right, tip left
* the CD input, a pair of RCA jacks
* the speaker-to-speaker terminals, spring-clip ("pull-down") terminals that take stripped and tinned wire
* the headphone jack on the front panel, a 3.5 mm stereo jack

On the Rev B main speaker a fifth jack is the subwoofer output.<ref name="til11769" /> The supplied cables were a computer interconnect cable with 3.5 mm plugs, a CD stereo cable and an insulated two-strand speaker cable.<ref name="til11768" /> Fit the black wire of the speaker cable to the black terminal and the white-striped wire to the red terminal. Apple's symptom chart gives a wrongly fitted speaker cable as the cause of missing bass.<ref name="ss" />

The dual-input mixer plays the computer input and the CD input together, so a CD-ROM drive's audio output and the computer's sound output can both stay connected.<ref name="til11768" />

=== Noise gate on the computer input ===
The original speakers have a noise gate on the 3.5 mm computer input only. It mutes the amplifier when the signal at that jack falls below a fixed level, which keeps hiss out of the speakers between system beeps. On quiet passages of an audio CD it also cuts the sound out. Apple's two remedies were to turn the Sound control panel volume up and use the speakers' own volume knob, or to feed the computer's output into the RCA CD inputs through a 3.5 mm to dual RCA Y-cable, which bypasses the gate.<ref name="til13778">Apple Computer, "AppleDesign Powered Speakers: Sound Cuts Out (4/94)", Tech Info Library article 13778 (TA30442), created 25 October 1993, updated 15 July 1994. Archive.org item APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES, file TIL00001_to_TIL60496.zip. Source for: the noise gate on the computer input jack only; sound cutting out on soft passages; the Y-cable and volume remedies.</ref> The II has no noise gate.<ref name="til16895" />

=== Subwoofer output ===
The Rev B subwoofer output can reach 2 V peak to peak. Apple's advice is to use a subwoofer that accepts that level or has an input level control, to start with both the speakers' volume and the subwoofer's input level at minimum, and to raise them slowly.<ref name="til19555" /> According to a 68kMLA member, only this early version of the speakers has the subwoofer port; the later original-style units and the II lack it.<ref name="fizz">Fizzbinn, reply in "Subwoofer to pair with AppleDesign Powered Speakers I", 68kMLA forum, 24 May 2024, https://68kmla.org/bb/threads/subwoofer-to-pair-with-appledesign-powered-speakers-i.47499/ (retrieved 2026-10-04). Community report on which versions carry the subwoofer port.</ref> That conflicts with the Service Source, where the main speaker with the jack (661-1737) is the later replacement for the one without (661-1689). Check the back panel of the unit in hand.<ref name="ss" />