where do i attach an external microphone on a mac mini

Hi Judith this is very simple

Next to the headphones out on the back of the mac mini you will find an identical small Audio in!

Plug the mic in there

If your mic or headset has a usb connector then plug that in instead and go set it up in system preferences/sound

I found out the same thing. Plugging in the Apple earbuds into the audio out jack (with the little headphone symbol) works for both input and output. The Apple earbuds used as a microphone only in the sound input jack do not work. The disadvantage to all this is you cannot use your speakers to hear sound if you are using the headphone jack as an input (mic). The sound will output only through your earbuds.

The location that Neil said is correct, but the "audio in" jack is for line-level sound, not microphone. What this means is a "cheap mic" will not work. It needs to be an amplified mic or other line-level source. (e.g.: a headset with a mic is usually NOT amplifed.)

Or get a USB microphone. Be sure that it's Mac compatible, of course.

Hi another thought is the Apple iPhone headset is completely compatible and can be used immediately

with no setup

- simply plug it into the headphone out

and you can use the built-in mic on the Apple headset as your mic

Re Audio in:

I thought the Mac would adjust itself to the input?

similar to the headphone / line out / digital out adjusts to whatever it is feeding

Hi

By far the fastest easiest way to get you going is just use the Apple iPhone headphones if you have them!

- plug 'em straight into the headphone jack on the Mac Mini.....

I looked up Logitech desktop mics and they all seem to be USB so just:

Plug the Logitech Mic into a USB port at the back of the Mac Mini

Open Skype Go to Prefernces and under Audio/Video

Set the Microphone to your Logitech mic (Skype will see it)

Set Speakers to Built-in Output

cheers

...and you can use the built-in mic on the Apple headset as your mic

Re Audio in:

I thought the Mac would adjust itself to the input?

similar to the headphone / line out / digital out adjusts to whatever it is feeding

No, the mini is line-level input only.

http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html

Audio line in minijack (digital/analog)

Line-level inputs "work" with headphone/speaker outputs most of the time with no conversion. But not the other way round. Non-powered microphones have even less voltage than line-level, which is why you need an amplifier for the microphone, unless it's specifically a "mic input".

Think of it this way: headphone jack = loud. Line-level jack = soft. Mic jack = really soft. If the source is louder than the destination, it will usually work. (e.g.: iPod headphone jack sending to line-level in of Mac Mini.) But not the other way round. (e.g.: line-level out of a VCR will NOT drive headphones.)

There are a few Macs with "mic in" like the Macbook Air. That one has a single jack for both mic and headphones rather than separate jacks. Apple did that to save space and also made it compatible with the iPhone-style headsets. But the rest of the Macs are line-level in.

I have a mid-2012 Mac Mini, and I tried to use it with a headset (headphones + microphone combo). The headset is not powered and has a single mini jack plug, but it also came with an adapter to split the single mini jack plug into 2 mini jack plugs. Using the splitter, I tried plugging the 2 plugs into audio in and audio out. I tried it both ways. I could get the headphones to work, but not the microphone.

But it turns out, you shouldn't use the splitter. Simply plug the single mini jack into the audio *out* port. This was counterintuitive to me, but it works! Both headphones and microphone are working now, with just a single plug.