Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference to kick off June 10 at 10 a.m. PDT with Keynote address

The Keynote will be available to stream on apple.com, the Apple Developer app, the Apple TV app, and the Apple YouTube channel. On-demand playback will be available after the conclusion of the stream.

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What type of external microphone do I need?

Do I need to use some sort of USB powered external mic with my iMac in order to do proper dictation and voice commands? I tried a simple plug-in mic and it did not work.


Thanks,


M

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 27" iMac 11,1; 8Gb Ram

Posted on Aug 10, 2013 4:41 PM

Reply
6 replies

Aug 10, 2013 4:56 PM in response to Mileman10

If you don't want to use the built-in mic for some reason, note that iMacs that have an audio input jack (the new ones don't) require line level signals. Since most mics output much weaker signals than that, that means you will need some sort of preamp to boost the mic's output to line level to get it to work.


You can buy a regular (analog) preamp or a mixer to do that, or use something like the Griffin iMic, a USB powered preamp & analog to digital converter. There are many other options for USB powered audio interfaces, but that's the cheapest one.

What type of external microphone do I need?

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