Due to a power issue with my cube, when network activity is taking place, the speakers (which are powered by USB from the cube) cut out. It seems the cube can't power too many devices at the one time... Adding to this, the speakers just aren't that loud, and the headphone jack on the 'breakout box' is too quiet for my liking as well.

What options are out there? My old PC had an audigy, and that sounded great - i'd like a similar sound from my cube, while not having it cut out whenever someone accesses my webserver.

Audiophiles: come forth.

m-audio
external sound card
streetwise sell them

simple sollution: buy a powered audio system. You are using the apple pro speakers, yeah? Perhaps it would be worth getting a new stereo system. That would solve the power issue.

Have you got one? It'd be sucky to get one myself, and find that they still cut out. :blink:

well there is no way to rule it out.
a cube just doesnt have that much raw power.
i dont have an m-audio either.dont need one on a g5
do the guys a wickeddigital sell them.

hm... those m-audio boxes require at least 500MHz aparently
http://www.streetwise.com.au/product_info....roducts_id=2104

having a cube @ 450MHz, that would be ideal when i do a CPU upgrade. Any others?

Disko, sounds like a bus power issue. Try a powered USB hub to confirm. If it still cuts out it might be the USB port or controller - prolly motherboard related.

The whole point of amplifiers is to provide clean power. That's why top end amps still have massive transformers in them and weigh a lot. I can't say I've seen power transformer inside a computer. I think some of the Audigy break-out boxes have small amp circuits in them though.

Powered speakers are better than those relying on line out voltage which is around 1 volt peak to peak so it is never going to any oomph. Connecting to a quality amp & speakers is the best solution, via Airport express & iTunes if you want to be mostly wireless.

Sound is only as good as the weakest link, cheap amp, speakers or cables will leave better components sounding cheap.

The AAC compression over Airtunes is good enough for most of us, I can make out the difference from the original CD's, but my CD player is a $500 Rotel which makes an all in one system sound flat.

The first rule of Audio is buy the sound that is a good as you are willing to pay for. If a $3000 pair of speakers sound marginally better than a $300 pair don't waste the extra $2700, if however after listening to the more expensive ones all you can hear is what is missing in the cheaper ones then you will need to be prepared to find speakers that don't lack, which usually costs more $. I can recommend Paradigm Atoms, Micros or Titans as excellent affordable bookshelf speakers at the lower end of Audiophile gear, but let your ears decide.

The airport express would be perfect... if it played all sound, and not just iTunes. I'd like to use this cube for gaming as well one of these days...

The Cube speakers draw 500mA from the USB bus, which is significantly higher than most USB devices.

The Griffin iMic (USB audio, line in/out) will allow you to use a pair of powered computer speakers, without the high power draw from the Cube amp. It is available in most AppleCentres for $99. Or there are the HK SoundSticks for nearly $300 ....

For higher quality audio, there are FireWire audio boxes available (like the mAudio) but these run to quite a bit more money.

well i second the iMic suggestion...makes audio sound much better...

You could try USB SoundSticks (which have their own PSU) but then you will lose the headphone jack, a real PITA as it was the only way I could hook the Cube sound up to the TV for watching movies. Swapping speakers back and forth just for the headphone jack is also annoying.

A powered USB hub might do it, although apparently the speakers are unreliable through a hub, that wouldn't stop you hooking everything else up to the hub though.

However, and this is the option I am waiting for, Appleinsider is reporting that Apple plan on releasing their own consumer level firewire audio device soon for use with garage band shortly after Christmas for around 100 USD.

How many USB devices do you have anyway?

Oh and although I haven't tried it recently, apparently with each version of OS X devices like the SoundBlaster Exdigy have been working better and better. There was a bit on xlr8yourmac about this in the forums but I haven't seen anything in a while.

one other solution is the Griffin RoadTrip - which we got for out iPod's but has this neat FM transmitter which disconnects and plugs into the lappy via headphones out for audio and uses USB to draw power, Griffin nicely include the cables to do this.

Note it does suffer the usual FM broadcast issues. (bit of hiss & wow from time to time) not as great sounding as Airtunes but functional just the same.

Are they the pro speakers? If so try these... powered by firewire

http://griffintechnology.com/products/ifire/

The Cube speakers differ from the Pro speakers. See this Apple TIL note. The Pro speakers have a special connector (based on a 3.5mm jack) whereas the Cube speakers are USB.

2 USB ports, 1 being used by the speakers, the other being used by a 4 port hub, which has only ever had a keyboard & mouse plugged into it.