OT - headworn mic & a Mac laptop (long, sorry)

[Reezekeys]

I"m trying to help my wife set up a therapy practice she"ll be doing over Zoom and she needs a microphone and speaker setup that, as far as I can tell, is not exactly typical.

 

Her normal setup is that she"ll be standing about 6 - 8 feet from the computer. Combined with a very echo-y room, the sound of her voice picked up by her laptop"s built-in mic, that far away, sucks. She found a cheap earbud + mic setup, we tried it and it"s much better at picking up her voice . However she does not like earbuds in her ears and the wires that hang down in front sometime make noises through the mic, as her therapy techniques involve movement.

 

From my research it looks like a headworn mic is the best option. We aren"t looking to spend much money and she does not want wireless. Many of these mics are expensive and made for wireless systems though. Right now I"d really like to find her a mic we can plug into her laptop like the earbuds. I did find a headset mic that was inexpensive and used a 3.5mm TS connector. It"s a 'back electret' design which I thought did not require a power supply however the spec sheet says 'Power Supply: DC 1.5 - 10 volts.' How is a mic supposed to get this from a 1/8' TS plug? I"m confused. This is the mic:

 

https://www.pyleaudio.com/sku/PMHM2

 

What I"m hoping for is that this mic can be plugged into her MacBook Pro and work the way the earbud"s mic did. I know the laptop (late 2013 Retina) uses a TRRS jack and I"ll need the proper adapter(s) to get a single 1/8' TS plug from a microphone to work. It"s been quite the education learning about the two different TRRS schemes (CTIA and OMPT) and how Apple uses a proprietary form of CTIA, etc. I"ve probably spent a few hours Googling without finding any straight answers to my Qs. And I haven"t even started with the other side of this equation â she wants to listen to the Zoom participants" audio over speakers. Her laptop speakers would be fine except they"re silenced when you plug anything into the headphone jack (which is where the mic is going). So there"s that. Sorry for the length and and many thanks for any tips & answers regarding this Pyle mic or a similar product.

[KuruPrionz]

I took a look at the "manual". It says nothing about how the power supply connects to the microphone. It does mention a Shure mini XLR plug existing but does not explain why it shows that.

 

In the upper right along the bar near the top is Contact Us. That's what I would do, contact them. Maybe there is an easy way to wire in a separate battery down by where it plugs into the laptop.

[Reezekeys]

I can't contact them & am done trying (and I tried, WAY more than anyone should have to).

 

So I found out that wireless body packs can provide power even through a regular 1/8" TS connection.

 

The question is â does a MacBook Pro put any voltage on its TRRS jack when a microphone is plugged in? How do the mics on earbuds and headsets work when you plug them into a Mac?

[KuruPrionz]

I honestly don't know. Did you try it and see what happened? Remember that you need to go to Preferences > Sound > to add or change an input source. The little speaker up in the top right of the menu won't do it.

I've noticed with Catalina that they did add a shortcut to "Sound Preferences" to the bottom of the dropdown menu there, that is really handy.

 

One of my best search tricks for solutions is to type the problem in the simplest possible way and add the word "forum".

 

That often brings up a discussion about the problem and often a couple of posters who've solved the problem will chime in.

 

I think that's how I found MPN, I know it's how I learned some proper ways to repair vehicles and other cool stuff.

[Reezekeys]

No I didn't try it (and my question wasn't directed specifically at you) because I thought I could get an answer before I spent money on a mic and waited for it to be shipped, etc.

 

That shortcut to Sound Prefs is in Mojave too. And I'm familiar with the settings in those prefs, I've been there many times. I've also made a bunch of aggregate devices in Audio Midi Setup. I use Soundflower to route audio all over the place so I can capture audio for screengrabs for making videos with.

 

I'm all set with what has to happen on my Mac. I just need to know if it powers a mic when one is plugged in. That seems to be highly classified information. Actually there is conflicting info â and many youtubes of clueless people "helping" us by showing how to connect a microphone to a Mac â without knowing how or why it works.

[Mike Warren]

I don't know specifically about Macs, but the pink connector on a PC will power condenser mics. Almost all small microphones (over 90%) used with computers and mobile phones require bias power, so it would be extremely unlikely that Macs don't supply it.

[Mike Warren]

A quick Google suggest that Apple have removed the mic port from Macs. Another thing you could look at are USB mic/headsets. There are plenty of those available now days.

[Reezekeys]

Mike, you're right that Macs eliminated the separate mic input port. However, they've incorporated it into the headphone jack. I don't blame you or anyone for missing some parts of my original post since it's so long, but I did mention the Mac's TRRS jack that receives a microphone input from an earbud/mic combo when plugged in. From my research, the Mac's software can determine when a TRRS plug is inserted, vs a "regular" headphone's (TRS) plug. When you plug in a headset/mic or earbuds with mic with their TRRS plugs, the "external mic" suddenly appears as an input source in the Mac's Sound Preferences.

 

There are adapters you can buy that will take the Mac's TRRS jack and give you separate microphone and headphone jacks, like this one. This is a total PITA and you Windows guys have it much better with the separate jacks. For one thing, you can't plug this splitter/adapter into the Mac and have its internal speakers keep working â the Mac assumes you're using headphones or earbuds and shuts the speakers off. My wife wants to use an external headworn mic only. Just a microphone, no headset and no earphones or buds. She would like to hear audio through the computer speakers.

 

I know I could and may just go with some kind of USB solution like those small cheap "sound card" thingies that cost $10 or so and give you a separate dedicated mic/line input and a headphone out. I actually used one myself for a while, but it crashed my Mac's audio subsystem so i'm a little leery of them. My wife is not a tech person to the point where it's almost impossible to help her if she gets into any trouble. I'm hoping to find a simple, workable and not too expensive solution that satisfies her need for a very lighweight, unobtrusive mic that allows good range of movement.

 

Anyway, as I mentioned in my first post, we attached a cheap earbud/mic to her MacBook Pro and the mic worked nicely. This may indicate that the Mac does indeed provide a few volts of DC to a mic â in which case there's a chance this Pyle headworn mic might actually work with the Mac! I just haven't been able to find a technical description of the Mac's external mic input circuitry that definitively says whether it provides a voltage there or not. I might just have to buy the Pyle and return it if it doesn't work. Thanks for trying to help!

[Docbop]

According to MapQuest they appear to have a store in NYC with hours posted. If they have a store they must have a phone number to call and ask.

[stoken6]

Rob - I did a spot of svengling:

 

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/25229/do-electret-condenser-microphones-require-phantom-power suggests that "the 3.5mm microphone jack in most consumer equipment" supplies a "non-standardized bias voltage (around 2.5-3.3V)", "sometimes called "plug-in power" or PiP."

 

http://www.felmicamps.co.uk/pluginpower.html suggests that Macs provide plug-in power (I trust these guys, they've made cables for me in the past, and have done so reliably and intelligently).

 

I think it's highly likely that standard smartphone headsets use electret elements, and hence need bias voltage, so "puug-in power" will be present on smartphones. One easy check: if you've got Apple earbuds, use them to try and record your voice on a Mac.

 

Good luck.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Reezekeys]

Thanks Mike. I had seen one of those links already (believe me I've been to many web sites in the last few days!). The second one (felmicamps) was new to me and sounds very encouraging except that it might be referring to the older Macs that had separate line/mic inputs and headphone jacks. Still, it's the only place on the web I've seen with any mention at all of plug-in power on a Mac's input! I'm gonna go with that, take a chance, order the Pyle mic and the adapter and hope for the best. I gotta say this â in all my years of being online I have never seen more misinformation, lack of information or just plain speculation on what should be a simple and straightforward point of knowledge â getting external audio into a Mac using its own hardware. I found quite a few videos describing the use of a TRRS adapter and the voodoo required to get an external mic recognized this way â but nothing specific about the types of mics that might work or not.

 

One easy check: if you've got Apple earbuds, use them to try and record your voice on a Mac.

 

Look at my original post â that's the first thing I did (except I used generic earbuds, not Apple)! As I said, the mic on those earbuds worked, but didn't know if it was a dynamic mic (which doesn't require power) or a permanently charged electret element (again, does not require power). I still don't know â and it's gonna cost me a few dollars to find out â but I think I've spent enough time on this. Thanks again for your help!

[SteveUK]

Is there a reason you haven't looked at a video conference headset? These come in wired and wireless (normally bluetooth) form.

 

I use these -https://www.jabra.co.uk/business/office-headsets/jabra-evolve/jabra-evolve-75##7599-832-109 - and since COVID working from home, probably about 8 hours a day on conference calls.

 

Apple Airpods would also do the job. My wife uses these and its amazing how clear the microphone is even though its nowhere near your mouth.

[Reezekeys]

Thanks for trying to help. From my initial post here: "However she does not like earbuds in her ears and the wires that hang down in front sometime make noises through the mic, as her therapy techniques involve movement."

 

She is doing a form of therapy that looks a little like dancing â but it's not dance. However she's moving around. For that reason, earbuds or headset earphones would be awkward. I can't imagine Airpods would stay in place, and anyway that goes back to my initial point that she doesn't want anything in her ears. She doesn't want to go wireless either, although that sounds like a better way. After looking around I thought this was the kind of solution that would work for her. The only problem is that this particular headset is just shy of $800! The Pyle I linked to in my first post is the "poor man's" version of this:

 

 

Something like this is much cheaper but may not be as comfortable:

 

 

I'm not 100% sure what she's gonna be happy with, but the main point is that it's all moot if I don't have informed knowledge of what kinds of microphones are in these headsets, whether they require power or not, and whether her laptop can supply this power. That information seems to be in short supply.

[Reezekeys]

Ok I'm quickly reviving this thread just to tie a bow on it and say that, yes, MacBooks & MacBook Pros do provide "plug-in power" or a bias voltage when a small electret condenser microphone is properly connected to its headphone output! I took a chance and bought the cheapo $15 Pyle headset mic I linked to in my first post (the link says $43 but it's $15 on Amazon). With the correct splitter/adapter, this mic works fine on both my MacBook Pro and iPhone SE (original).

 

Now we can put this topic out of its misery!