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iHateMacs

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 13, 2008
654
24
Coventry, UK
I have a 2019 MBP 4 Port.

I am going into Hospital in the next few weeks for an extended stay and want to keep in touch with work by Skype.

Last time I was in hospital a couple of years ago I only had my AirPods.
These were a real pain to setup when I got a call. I wasn't fully mobile and they were always put away safe. I always missed the call and had to call back by the time I got them out and connected.

I want to go old school with a wired headset.

I have just been trying a Turtle Beach wired gaming headset that I had lying around.
While the sound of this is great, I am getting terrible mains hum on the test recording and presumably will be the same on Skype.
This headset was bought for an X-BOX One and plug directly into the controller on a 4 pole 3.5in Mini Jack.

The hum is worse when I have the USBC charger connected.

You can see the level of the hum compared to my voice on the attach image.

I have found that with my hand touching the MBP anywhere the hum is reduced.
Putting a whole palm on the left of the trackpad reduces the hum by about 80% but it's not ideal.

Do you think this is just a badly/wrongly wired headset? I've tried turning the plug a few times to scrape off any oxide on the connections but that made no difference.

If I just plug in headphones and record using the MBP built-in mic then there is no hum at all.

I would prefer a headset with a proper boom that I can have in front of my mouth so that I can talk quietly when I am on the ward.

I don't want to buy a 2nd headset if it is going to be the same.

Do you have good success using a wired headset?
Which one would you recommend for the MBP. Ideally I need one with both ears fully enclosed, to help cut out the sounds around me.

I will be watching TV on the laptop too so will be getting plenty of use from it.
 

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I have found that with my hand touching the MBP anywhere the hum is reduced.
Putting a whole palm on the left of the trackpad reduces the hum by about 80% but it's not ideal.
I had this exact problem. It's a grounding issue.
I'm guessing you're plugged in using the 2-prong plug?
Use the 3-prong plug and you'll be golden.

It's a subtle issue, but what's happening is that you created a ground loop by not using the ground prong on your charger.
your USB-C cable is acting like an antennae, and it's leaking RF noise into the air, creating what Shure calls a "hum field", or an inductive loop, which the microphone is picking up.

A little trick is that you'll notice that the amount of noise will increase and be very stable when you touch the metal shield of the USB-C connector.
 
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