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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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