Apple Pro Speakers (2001)
Transparent globes with Harman Kardon technology and an exclusive connector: the "pro" speakers Apple reserved for Macs with a digital audio output.
© Bishonen · Public domain ↗ Resized, no crop or retouching.
Specs
| Connectivity | Apple's proprietary speaker minijack (requires a Mac with a built-in amplifier) · 70 Hz-20 kHz |
| Price | $59 |
| Key feature | Harman Kardon technology |
Launch
Apple introduced the Pro Speakers on January 9, 2001, at San Francisco's Macworld Expo, alongside the "Digital Audio" Power Mac G4 line at up to 733 MHz, per its press release. They were the visible piece of a new digital audio system with an amplifier built into the Mac itself, and Apple described them as based on Harman Kardon technology, with a frequency range of 70 hertz to 20 kilohertz. They sold as a $59 option. The transparent globe design was not new: the Power Mac G4 Cube had shipped externally identical speakers since 2000, though those carried their own amplifier and connected over USB, as collector site mac27.net documents. They extended the sound collaboration between Apple and Harman Kardon that had produced the 1999 iSub and the 2000 SoundSticks.
Marketing
The Pro Speakers only worked with Macs that included the amplified digital audio jack: the 2001 Power Mac G4 towers onward and the flat-panel iMac G4, whose January 2002 press release bundled them with the two higher configurations and highlighted its internal 18-watt digital amplifier. Their connector was exclusive: testing the 2001 Power Mac G4, Macworld noted the digital audio jack as an additional port, separate from the standard minijack outputs. Sold standalone, they came with white or black surrounds, while the ones bundled with the iMac were white, per mac27.net, which records their part number M8282ZM/A.
Flaws and fixes
The exclusive connector was their practical limit: they did not plug into a normal 3.5 mm minijack and would not work with just any equipment, because they expected the amplified signal from those specific Macs, as Macworld warned in its 2015 retrospective. The fix came from a third party: the Griffin iFire adapter let them run on other machines, a piece that already in 2015 Macworld described as something to scour eBay for. In the same retrospective, Macworld remembered them warmly, calling them in its headline the best speakers Apple had ever made, for their warm, crisp sound, with the single reservation of limited low end.