Thank you for your speedy reply. The one I'm in shows a speaker icon, I'm connected in that with an 1/8 in. mini stereo to a split rca that goes into my Denon receiver amp that powers my speakers.If I could send you the photo of the back of my Denon I could show you the options for that. But I think I have that correct. So should I plug into the HeadPhone or leave it where it's at in the speaker area. (at least it shows it as a speaker plug in).

Thanks much, I'll give it a try.

Thank You for your reply. Can you give me a few example of a mic pre amp? jbechdel@comcast.net

I just bought the Alesis USB to 1/4 cable I have a pre1964 Fender Jassmaster and just want to take advantage of Garageband and any other amp modeling softwares i can find. I'm 61 year old and just want to have a little fun. I had a Line6 and couldn't get it to work sent it back to Sweetwater after 2 weeks of taking with sweetwater techs and Line6 techs. Then I bought the New Fender Stelth (I think thats the correct name) only to find out it would't bring my guitar up to line level. And now I have the Alesis. So Firat question: Should I be connecting my 1/8 in stereo mini into my Headphones in the back of my mac? and then into my Denon tuner Receiver. It has a pre amp in it so won't that help?

Another question. Say I disregard my connection to my Denon tuner receiver and just get an 1/8 to 1/4 jack and go from my mac straight into my Fender amp?

Thanks, I was talking to a Sweetwater salesman a week ago and they recommended this http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BR90 But I don't wan to spend that much so the EDIRO sounds better.

Thanks, but this is Albuquerque, New Mexico and we only hav 2 guitar stores not counting used guitar stores. It's a growing city but not that fast. This is how this all started out about a year ago. First I was going to get the MACKI mixer, then the MBox and on and on. Do you thinl with the box you recommended I can still use GarageBand?

I have a Mac Pro intel 2x2.66 GHz Dual-Core 9GB ram Latest OS leopard 10.5.7 Plenty of HD's 3 1TB's although one is reserved for my neg and slide scanning which I have over 30 years of shooting to catalog. At 61 I don't think I'll get them scanned and color correced & cleaned up. I have the latest Garageband 09 and the latest Lynda.com tutorial. I have been talking to a saleman at sweetwater and he is trying hard to sale me the new Apogee for $249. He said it's compatible with Garageband. I've come full circle in one year staring out looking at the Macki and the Mbox. By the way your a very dedicated forum admin. By this time most would have written me off as a crack pot. Thank You

Well I don't think it matters either way if it's software driven or not. Just so I can use garageband and it would be nice to have a few different amp simulations other than garageband's. I also need to be able to plug my speakers into whatever I buy. I have some studio custome speakers I run thru my Denon tuner receiiver. It's 50 watts a side. And these are not tiny computer speakers. Keep up the good work on this forum. I find about 1 out of 15 forums to be very receptive.

Sorry, but can you explain your first sentence. unbalanced outputs in general aren't necessarily all evil. You just need to make sure that they are away from power lines or at right angles to them if they have to cross. You also want to keep the cable length as short as possible to help reduce the likelihood of noise being picked up.