iChat is so quiet!

[Stadsport]

I have a C2D 2ghz MacBook, as does my boyfriend (his is CD, though), and another friend has a C2D MacBook Pro. We've all used iChat together, but it's so quiet. The mic settings in System Preferences are all the way up, and our speakers are on full blast, and yet we can barely hear eachother.
Is there anything that can be done about this? I realize the MacBook's speakers are rather small but seriously, it's not like music can't get louder than this with ease.

 

[holamiamigos]

ichat > preferences > alerts > speech volume all the way up??? maybe... but i'm not sure cause thats things for alerts.... anyway how's the quality of the video?? cause when i have a 3 people chat the quality goes down...

 

[Stadsport]

Quality's, good, and yeah that's just for alerts. Any other ideas?

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

do you have any 3rd party sound drivers/software installed?

 

[apfhex]

Have you tried turning up the mic/input volume in System Preferences > Sound > Input? Edit: nvm, saw that you did. Hmm, maybe try speaking closer to the mic?

 

[holamiamigos]

wow i wonder whats wrong with my video but thanks for answering... about the audio thing just use headphones i guess....

 

[bousozoku]

It probably has to do with the microphone being so close to the speakers that feedback would be a problem. I use a USB-attached headset and it's plenty loud.

 

[Maxwell Smart]

Did you try it with external speakers?

 

[BigPrince]

People always complain that I am really freaking loud when using ventrillo.