RUNNING POWERED SPEAKERS FROM AN IMAC

I'm sure you could find one at Best Buy or Radio Shack but it will cost several dollars more and the quality won't be any better.

I got really great sound from my IMac by using the Audioquest DragonFly USB Dac and then I come out of the Dac with the 3.5mm (as Sfar mentioned).
I use high end cables that feed my Audio Engine 5+ speakers and Sub.

+1 Lak. The use of an outboard DAC would make for a significant sonic improvement over the headphone jack output. At $129 new the AQ is one of the least expensive.

Ok, so did this and it does work BUT I am hearing quite a lot of static from the speakers. I did not hear this in my office where the speakers used to be, and there was a laptop between them.
Any suggestions audio wizards?
Thanks in advance.

Do you have a source other than the iMac, an mp3 player or laptop, with a headphone jack you can plug the cable into? That would tell you whether the static is coming from the iMac or the cable/speakers.

If the static is still there with a different source you might move that setup to a different location to see if there's interference from something else in your computer room.

The object is to isolate the variables one at a time until you discover the problem.