Connecting External Speakers to My Intel-based iMac

Hello everyone,
I have a 24-inch, white, Intel-based iMac. I also have a pair of wonderful sounding old Mission speakers that are not self-powered, and I was wondering if anyone knew whether the iMac's internal amp can drive them. Would I connect via the headphone port? And if so, is there a connector that I can buy to patch the speaker wires to a one-eighth inch pin to do the trick?
Regards,
Gregory

I also have a pair of wonderful sounding old Mission speakers that are not self-powered,
and I was wondering if anyone knew whether the iMac's internal amp can drive them.
*No way!* The iMac's 24 watt internal amp is NOT connected to the headphone output;
that's only for the internal speakers. The headphone output is spec'd at 1.6 Vrms max
with an output impedance of up to 24 ohms -- so, Apple only guarantees that it can
deliver 0.1 watt to an external load. In reality, the output impredance is probably less
than 24 ohms, so it will probably deliver a little more than that -- but the maximum
power output is still gonna be well under 1 watt. Headphones, yes ...speakers, NO!
[Apple Audio Developer Note|http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/Conceptual/HWTechAudio/Articles/Audio_implementation.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40003978-SW281200331167]
...have you hugged an engineer, today?
Looby

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