Headphone jack as input

[nate16]

Hello all,

I recently purchased a 2017 27inch iMac to replace my Late 2012 Mac Mini. I knew that the iMac only had a headphone jack but I figured that I could use an adapter to get audio from my soundboard onto the iMac via the headphone jack. I've tried and failed.

This is the cable that I ordered that I hoped would fix my problem but I'm not getting anything showing up on the input side when I try to use it. Did I get the wrong cable or is this just not possible in the iMac? I tried out my old iPhone headphones as well and they don't show any input options.

I just ordered a USB version that should work but I wanted to see if the users here had any other solutions before I return the cables I purchased.

 

[Stefan johansson]

The headphone jack is most likely only connected to output on sound card.

 

[fischersd]

Actually, the port only supports the input of a microphone from a set of Apple headphones.
From: https://www.apple.com/ca/imac/specs/


So, if I were you, I'd ask the folks at Apple if they have a cable that could be used with 3rd party devices that you could utilize the proprietary interface they're using.

 

[Chancha]

Forget the jack, it's wired in TRRS where the mic is only mono.

Get a cheap USB audio interface, even the most basic ones can take stereo AUX input from RCA or 3.5mm jack.