Imac External Speakers No Longer Working?

If this has been asked elsewhere, sorry! Please direct me.
I have a 21.5" Intel Imac my husband got for me last April. He got the JBL duet speakers at the same time. They have always worked great and I love them.
Yesterday morning before I went to my folks' house, the speakers were working - I watched something on youtube. Last night, while hubby was napping, I watched a couple webinars relating to my business. No problem with the speakers.
Went to bed. Hubby came and woke me up wanting to know what was wrong with the speakers. He was complaining that voices on his movie were distorted, that only music could be heard, and then that the speakers weren't working. When I came downstairs, he had for some reason plugged them into the microphone port, not the headphones.
Now, he has previously in the last couple days plugged the speakers into his Macbook with no problem, and there was no issue putting them back on my imac, so I don't think that was it.
I have the speakers plugged into the headphones. I've unplugged them, plugged them back in, hooked them to the computer, all kinds of things. I finally got sound to come through them a bit ago, but it was tinny and the voice distorted and echoing.
I did notice something odd. In System Prefs, the Imac is now recognizing something is in the headphone jack (it wasn't) but still is thinking that something is in the mic jack even though it isn't! I keep having to select built in speaker because it wants to pick up sounds with something that isn't there. (And when my husband had the speakers stuck in the mic jack, I think they were being treated as a mic).
So are my speakers just suddenly messed up? They were working fine earlier! Or is there something I can do to get this fixed? This is my first mac and I'm so clueless!

This solved my problem: in HARDWARE - Sound Preferences, I selected OUTPUT. I highlighted Headphone Port, (It was not originally highlighted), and then performed a complete shutdown (not restart). Re-booted, launched iTunes and the Bose speakers were working, as were the headphones.
This may not work for everyone, but it worked for me. Good Luck!

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