[Macpartners] headset use on a G4 powerbook

[Douglas Alan]

Kerem B Limon <k_limon at MIT.EDU> wrote:

> How many know to look for a "five-input mixer with microphone preamp"
> or even what it is? How many Mac users will know?  Do we all have to
> go to the Apple store to just get a Mac-compatible mike when I can
> walk into MicroCenter and choose from oodles of headsets for my PC for
> $10 or so? Rachel's question itself demonstrates that need well...

Yeah, it's kind of annoying, but so is having to track down
Mac-compatible software, since most software runs only on PC's.  If you
decide to go for a Mac, I think you've probably knowingly committed
yourself to living in a Mac-centric world.  (Though, personally, I'm
just in it for the underlying Unix.)

I think the idea was probably to avoid the problem that PC's have -- if
you plug a line-level device into your microphone input on your PC
sound-card, you risk blowing out the sound card.  And that's no small
worry, as it's typically impossible to read the tiny little symbols
engraved on the sound cards, or to make sense of what they mean.  Now
that PC sound cards have started to color-code things, it's a bit
easier, assuming you know what the colors mean.

> Anyway, hey, thanks for the detailed info--you learn something new every day.

No problem.  By the way, you don't *need* a five-input mixer -- you just
need a microphone preamp.  It just so happens that that five-input mixer
I linked to is very cheap and has a microphone preamp built into it.
Strangely enough, dedicated microphone preamps I could find were more
expensive.  The Apple Store no doubt sells something smaller and cuter
and shiny white.

|>oug