Headset Isn't Working (Line-In)

[BeSweeet]

So I bought this Logitech ClearChat Stereo headset at Walmart today. It doesn't work. The headphone portion does, but the mic doesn't. Yes, the switch is switched to "on".

Now it does say on the side of the packaging that it will not work on Apple hardware, but I decided to give them a try anyway, finding out that it doesn't work.

It's just 2 standard 3.5mm plugs (one for the mic, and one for the headphone). I don't see why it wouldn't work... I have a cable that has the same 3.5mm plugs on both ends, and I can plug one end into my iPhone and one into my MBP's line-in, start playing music, and the audio will work.

Any ideas? I guess it really meant what was on the side of the box, but I'd like to get this working. I've read a few reviews for this on Newegg of people getting it to work on their MacBook's, so...

 

[mikes70mustang]

So I bought this Logitech ClearChat Stereo headset at Walmart today. It doesn't work. The headphone portion does, but the mic doesn't. Yes, the switch is switched to "on".

Now it does say on the side of the packaging that it will not work on Apple hardware, but I decided to give them a try anyway, finding out that it doesn't work.

It's just 2 standard 3.5mm plugs (one for the mic, and one for the headphone). I don't see why it wouldn't work... I have a cable that has the same 3.5mm plugs on both ends, and I can plug one end into my iPhone and one into my MBP's line-in, start playing music, and the audio will work.

Any ideas? I guess it really meant what was on the side of the box, but I'd like to get this working. I've read a few reviews for this on Newegg of people getting it to work on their MacBook's, so...

You have to go to preferences and change the input to line in and not built in audio, not everything is plug and play

 

[BeSweeet]

You have to go to preferences and change the input to line in and not built in audio, not everything is plug and play

Thanks, but I already know about that.

This doesn't work in Snow Leopard, Windows, or Linux.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

This is because your line in is a line in, not a mic in. It's set up for a line-level signal, which is much stronger than a mic-level signal. You'll need an amplifier of some sort to make it work if you want to use what you've got. If you open up GarageBand (or Audacity or some audio editor), make sure you've set it to line in record, and yell loudly into the mic, the recorder will just barely pick it up.

Of course, the obvious thing here is not to buy something for your Mac that says it won't work on a Mac unless you have reason to believe it will.

 

[BeSweeet]

This is because your line in is a line in, not a mic in. It's set up for a line-level signal, which is much stronger than a mic-level signal. You'll need an amplifier of some sort to make it work if you want to use what you've got. If you open up GarageBand (or Audacity or some audio editor), make sure you've set it to line in record, and yell loudly into the mic, the recorder will just barely pick it up.

Of course, the obvious thing here is not to buy something for your Mac that says it won't work on a Mac unless you have reason to believe it will.

Thanks for the reply. Is there any specific reason that Apple didn't just make it a mic-in jack like most computers out there? Sort of disappointing... Oh well. I'll return it tomorrow and get the USB ones (even though it cost twice as much).

 

[jawa12083]

Wirelessly posted (iPod Touch 2G 8GB: Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Windows has a Mic Boost feature. Have you tried turning that on??

 

[drech]

It's not a mic-in port because, historically, macs have been used heavily in the recording/audio industry, and so the line-in is meant to provide a port for actual line level devices.

 

[jawa12083]

Wirelessly posted (iPod Touch 2G 8GB: Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Most bands I know use MBP's... And 13" too. Hmmm

 

[thejadedmonkey]

It's not a mic-in port because, historically, macs have been used heavily in the recording/audio industry, and so the line-in is meant to provide a port for actual line level devices.

That's not entirely accurate. Although it is a line-in port under OS X, if you boot up into Windows, it becomes a mic-in port, as Windows will amplify the sound. I never could understand why Apple never did that...

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

That's not entirely accurate. Although it is a line-in port under OS X, if you boot up into Windows, it becomes a mic-in port, as Windows will amplify the sound. I never could understand why Apple never did that...

Except the OP states that it doesn't work under Windows either... curious.

It should be possible to simply amplify the signal enough so that it registers properly using the hardware of the computer itself. I've never found a program that can do this, however. My fix has simply been to run my mic through my Canon HV20 (a HDV camcorder with both a mic in and a line/headphone out) and the HV20 acts as an amplifier.

I know I prefer a line in over a mic in... there are many more uses for a line in. But it does leave those wanting to use a mic with the computer directly with a bit of a problem...

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

After doing a little more research, it seems like it is definitely impossible to get the mic in without some sort of external sound card or board, as per this thread @ mac-forums.com.

Also, in the process of my research it seems that there may be a bug with 10.5.8 on PPC systems... the Line In no longer shows up in the System Preference for Sound. I know it still works... I can record in Audacity via line-in no problem, but it's kind of weird. Anyone else have this problem?