Thanx dane - will forward this to him. It's one of those headsets with a plug for the microphone and a plug for the headphone part. Of course if the socket does nothave enough power then he will have to take the other route.
André -----Original Message----- From: Pc-audio [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of Dane Trethowan Sent: Monday, March 20, 2017 9:18 PM To: PC Audio Discussion List Subject: Re: sound input on the mac mini Hi! Yes, the input socket is a line-in standard and - unlike some Windows sound cards - doesn't provide power either so you have some alternatives at your disposal, I'll give you a link with more details at the bottom of this eMail. A microphone can be used with this socket but it needs to be of the battery powered kind - in other words the microphone has to provide amplification. On the Mac Mini a microphone is usually connected via the output socket believe it or not. This doesn't make sense when you read it but when you think about it connecting a microphone to the output socket makes perfect sense. Suppose you have a set of Apple Earbuds or compatible headset with an inline microphone or similar, all you have to do is to plug the headset into the line-out/headphones socket and you have both your headphones and microphone there. I know that various adapters are available for this socket including one which will allow the oconnection of the conventional two plug stereo headset - one plug being for the headphones themselves and the other being for the microphone on the headset -. Some more information about the audio in and out on the Mac Mini before we move on. Both these jacks are capable of accepting digital signals which is handy to know if you're connecting to speakers with a digital input, connecting to a source such as a TV or similar for recording from a digital output and so on. Now if the microphone situation with the audio in and out sockets is just far too annoying then the easiest way to get around all this is to use one of the USB sockets for either a dedicated USB microphone or - perhaps a better option in your firneds case - a USB adapter. This adapter is affectively a USB Sound Card dongle which provides the connections for a powered microphone - standard Windows PC type - or other microphone so you'll have to do a little research here into what's available. So here ends my explanation and I hope you followed along <smile> and here's the support link from the Apple site. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3331295?start=0 On 21/03/2017 5:52 AM, André van Deventer wrote: > Hi all > > > > Firstly I know nothing about mac computers and do not have one. I am > asking this on behalf of a friend who has one. > > > > He bought a mac mini a few days ago. Apparently there are two 3.5 mm > sockets on this machine. One is an output and one an input. The output is > enough to drive a pair of headphones but the input seems to only be line in. > His question is whether it is possible to switch between line in and > microphone input like most windows sound devices. Or is this socket > line in only? He is trying to use a headset that he already has. The > sound comes out fine on the output side but of course the input is completely dead. > > > > Regards > > > > André >
