I’ve been doing some wrestling with my MacBook’s audio input. I wanted to plug in a good external mic, but as my trip through Boot Camp taught me, the MacBook’s audio input is a line-in port, not a microphone port, so it requires a powered microphone.
There’s an external microphone on my PowerMac G3, which I unplugged and tried only to realize that it didn’t fit all the way in, because the plug on it was longer than your standard 1/8th inch connector. That was puzzling, until I discovered this Apple support doc:
Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White)Fascinating. I hadn’t realized that Apple’s mics from that period (pictured here—I think I had two of them floating around) were a proprietary standard (audio geeks can find Apple’s specs here).The microphone input jack supports line-level input signals. Apple provides the PlainTalk microphone. It is a line-level input device with a longer connector than Apple’s previous microphone, and it receives its power from the computer. Other consumer line-level devices are also supported through the microphone input jack on these computers.
After a bad experience with an Altec Lansing USB headset (too much interference/noise in recordings), I’m thinking about picking up a Griffin iMic for my needs. Recommendations?
iMics great, I even used it ran through a broken 4 track (the tape sucked, but everything else was ok) to do band recordings.
Probably a cheaper all around solution too, though if your JUST using it for microphones and have no intention to use other things, I suggest the Snowball USB mic instead.
With the iMic, you can use an analog headset. I would highly reccomend the Plantronics Audio .90, except Plantronics no longer makes it.
You could do what I did and purchase an inexpensive USB sound card like this: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=56591995 (this is the one I bought, but you can find similar through google). This handy device comes with a microphone (not line-level) port and does not require drivers under OS X.
Try a Plantronics USB headset, especially the one made specifically for Macs, the .Audio 85. It has an advantage in that it can also be used as an analog headset.
The iMic is fine, but you'd then have to get an analog headset. The Plantronics .Audio 85 is $59 from macspeech.com (the makers of iListen). I've used mine in noisy environments and it does an excellent job of noise cancelling. It folds up pretty well for travelling, too. I got it to use with Skype & Gizmo, but it also works nicely with my 5G iPod. Sure, it's a bit overkill for the iPod, but I have to carry only one set of headphones. (I don't use earbuds. They're a form of torture. I have Etymotic in-ear phones, but I use those only when I need to block noise, as on an airplane. Otherwise, they are rather inconvenient.