Crackling external speakers

External & internal speakers have worked perfectly for several years. This morning I unplugged the external speakers to set the internal speakers to a lower volume so that the startup sound wouldn't be so loud. When I went to plug the external speakers back in, I plugged the jack into the "Analog audio in" "Audio in/optical audio" port (that's what Mac Help calls it).
When I realized my mistake, I plugged the jack into the headphone port. Since then the external speakers crackle in a pulsating rhythm.
I tried another set of external speakers and it does the same thing.
I tried headphones and it does not happen. The sound is perfect.
I tried the internal speakers and they are perfect also.
Anyone have any idea what happened AND what I should do about it?

The problem lasted about two days and went away on it's own. It's a mystery to me. The only things I did were turning the computer and speakers on in the morning and turning them off at night. I'm not going to loose any sleep over it as long as it's working. I'll also be more careful in the future about what port I plug my speakers into!

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