I am using a HP Pavillion desktop and am looking into connecting a pair our Bose 251 enviornmental speakers for use outside. I know that most if not all speakers for computers have internal amplifiers and I guess what I want to know is if these speakers will be compatible and how to go about connecting them to my computer. A quick trip to YouTube revealed that some people have had success connecting to the earphone jack but that seems a little Mickey Mouse to me. Should I be seaching out a pre-amp or can I connect directly? If anyone has experience with this I would appreciate your comments. Thanks.

I connect the earphone output of my Mac Mini to a Pioneer audio system's line input. (In a prior house, that output actually went to two amplifier systems.) You can find the 1/8 inch jack to RCA phono plugs adapter cable at Amorn Electronics. Works great, and there would be plenty of power to drive Bose outdoor speakers or you can use the surround speakers that come with the Pioneer.

How about getting Bluetooth speakers?

I bought a nice little Bluetooth speaker for a colleague last year and the sound's truly amazing. Couldn't find the one I bought, please see image.

Your desktop more than likely has a line-level output - it might look just the same as a 3.5mm headphone jack, but it will be standard 1V P-P audio you can run to an amplifier or receiver, which in turn can then run your passive speakers.

However, the sound quality of built-in sound cards in computers can vary anywhere between shocking to reasonably good.

If the existing line output doesn't sound good enough, there are a number of options:

* As it's a desktop, you can add a higher quality sound card

* or, use a USB DAC (works with any computer, no need to open the case).

* or, stream the music over Wifi to an Airport Express, then pickup the signal as optical digital (mini Toslink) that can then be decoded by a receiver.

I should note the the Airport Express also supports 1V P-P line out, and that Windows machines can transmit Airplay audio too - with the right software.

I will go beyond what you are saying, but what I am afraid you are meaning!! Is this for some kind of revenge??

In that case be careful "out there"... Try to stay away from all these idiots that have their f;ing music outdoors and disturb everyone else...

Tack care

Glegolo

Beautiful music out on the deck?

Alohz

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, this gives me a starting point and no revenge intended just music on the deck as stated above.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, this gives me a starting point and no revenge intended just music on the deck as stated above.

You could try one of these:

http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F8Z492/

It works well with my Bose Room Mate speakers

Thanks, this looks like a good solution

Thanks, this looks like a good solution

Expensive and you will need an amplifier/receiver anyway.

Like mentioned above, active Bluetooth speakers and if your Desktop doesn`t have Bluetooth, add a cheap USB Bluetooth dongle.