Bose in monitor speakers

[ukulele]

I just yesterday bought an IBM Aptiva 2140 complete system at a garage sale for 50 bucks. It has a 233mhz P2 processor which is too slow to be worth much now but the monitor that came with it is very nice, It is an IBM MM75 17" monitor with built in Bose speakers, built in mic and pass through usb port. I plan to use it on my Athlon XP system as the primary monitor because it has a better picture then my three year old Sylvania F72 which I will use as a second monitor. I downloaded the specs from IBM and apparently the speakers will only work on an Aptiva motherboad of the same type that is in the old Aptiva which has an audio amplifier on board. Does anyone know if a pci card is available that has a bose compatable output for this type of monitor/speaker system. I have searched a bit but didn't find anything yet about this.

[BipolarBill]

Well - you could always use an old integrated amp or used-up receiver. Scott made some nice old stuff. Love those old Tandberg receivers too. Then again, those cost more now than when they were new.

[ukulele]

Right now I've got the sound pumped through an old solid state 300 watt Kenwood reciever with four huge speakers. It can blow the doors off at full volume, but it sucks a lot of power and I am always forgetting to shut it off. Seems like a waste if you just want a little background music but I suppose it's time to wire the outlet into the wall switch for the lights. I always remember to shut them off. It also seems like a lack of forsight that IBM would have made such a nice monitor/audio combo that would only work with a P2 Aptiva. Worse then that, from what I could find it only worked on two different models! :( On the good side the mic works great and the usb pass through works too and the picture quality is second to none others I've had the pleasure to own. :)

[rmanet]

Originally posted by ukulele
It also seems like a lack of forsight that IBM would have made such a nice monitor/audio combo that would only work with a P2 Aptiva. Worse then that, from what I could find it only worked on two different models! :(

why are you surprised? IBM has been in and out of the PC and printer business what, two or three times, and every time they built systems they were running IBM blue in their veins, I mean circuits

whoa - $50 bucks for a system just to get the monitor - give the system to someone you know locally that doesn't have any $$ but could use it for their kids, etc? (It'll run ME :) my Dell laptop does with 64 megs RAM just fine, but as you know, most folks don't like it! ;) )

got the same setup but running speakers thru an old Technics for my oldest boy - thumping from the upstairs room reminds me of when I was a kid :D

if I were you I'd get all the specs I can find on the output, and go visit a local stereo repair shop, look for the oldest guy behind the counter, praise him for his wisdom and ask to sit "at the foot of the elder"

or google for the online electronics forums - I've even diagnosed and fixed an A/C problem with my BMW by visiting some A/C technicians forum - they were as helpful as sysopt

[ukulele]

Actually the computer is not too bad. It has 160 mb ram, a NIC card and a 56k modem. I loaded win98SE on it and it runs just fine. I did notice that it has a seperate Bose Tier 1 audio amp that connects to a 10 pin audio jack on the motherboard and a molex connector. There is a volume and mute control on the monitor and a headphone jack. I have thought about it for a while now and actually it wouldn't be a bad idea just to keep it as as an MP3 and cd player and as a spare computer and file server. This would allow seemless audio while I'm working on the new computer and I could still output to the Kenwood amp with the headphone jack if I wanted the volume. I have a program that is called CD Copier Pro (that I also found at a garage sale for a buck) that lets you create virtual cd's and virtual drives. I think I can possibly program it to work as a virtual multi cd player on the P2 rig. That would be fun. :)