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Use headphones as a microphone on some Macs
Authored by: sig eigei on Mar 30, '06 07:59:13AM

Rob,

I don't know about the imac but all powerbooks produced after the venerable pismo only had a LINE input for audio meaning that it was unpowered. In order to use it to input sound (like with a pair of cheap PC style headphone/mic combo) you have to have a power supply like the USB audio adapter made by Griffin which costs around 35usd...until now - only today I found a no-brand usb audio interface (here in shanghai where I am for a few days) costing only 7usd! It works fine and it's small, even if ugly and blue.

Incidentally a lot of people make the mistake of plugging in a cheap pc headset combo into the headphone jack and sound line-in and think they are speaking inteo their new mic when in fact the sound is actually being registered in their mac's internal microphone.



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Use headphones as a microphone on some Macs
Authored by: SpankyG4 on Mar 30, '06 08:09:40AM

Well tried this on my G4 Dual 867 (Mirrored Doors) and works like a charm, thanx for the hint.



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Use headphones as a microphone on some Macs
Authored by: pwagenet on Mar 30, '06 10:46:52AM

I've used a cheap $5 mic on my TiBook for a while and it works fine. I can assure you that it is not powered. The jack on the TiBook is the same as that on virtually every other Mac or PC. The mini mic jacks are never powered. You'll only find powered jacks with phantom power on pro audio equipment.

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-Peter



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Use headphones as a microphone on some Macs
Authored by: acous on Mar 30, '06 08:58:23PM

You are correct that only pro audio equipment provides power (but only over XLR, not jacks as far as I know). I think the original poster is getting confused by the term "line level". Many computers have a port specifically for microphones but they're not powered, they just have a built in pre amp to bring the low output from the mic up to the correct level.

I'm not sure about TiBooks but my AlBook definitely only has a line input. Mics work but don't really provide a loud enough signal to be usable. Headphones seem even less sensitive and are pretty much useless.



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