“Most computer microphones use the third segment to carry bias power for the microphone.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microphone_connector
I had thought it was to deliver sound to both sides (rather than left- or right-only) but here we are.
What is bias power?
Some types of mic capsules require a voltage to work
deleted by creator
No that is a stereo mic lead, hence the two rings.
I don’t think we can tell from just a picture of the plugs. These are definitely two 3.5mm stereo jacks, colored headphone and mic. Maybe have a look at the manual? Or type the model number into Google? Or use a multimeter and measure the resistance.
This was in a shop so yeah
What do you mean by stereo wire? It’s got 3 contacts on the 3.5mm jack, that’s enough to transfer analog stereo (GND, L, R).
Microphone is mono They’re wondering why there’s a third contact
It’s for bias to the mic. Condenser mics need it to apply bias to one of the leads of the mic so it can amplify the sound before sending it to the input of the card. Some mics don’t require that (self-biased) so in that case, the R pin (middle ring) goes to GND.
Ah, seems you’re right. I didn’t know that. But that seems to be an old way of doing it. I’ve only ever seen 2 contacts on a seperate microphone jack or the 4-contact combined ones in modern laptops.
The link doesn’t open, says connection refused 🤷.
Regardless, if it doesn’t require the bias pin, the mic is self-biased or biased through another source (use the same wire for the signal to get bias, this is easy, you just use a cap to decouple the signal from the bias).
So you have two low-quality mics that can distort your discord call twice as effective.
Innovation!
It has that wire to output audio on both speakers? That’s the green one btw. The pink is for mic input. USB could be for a few different things depending on the features that particularl set has.
Edit: Nvm, thought the question was for a headset, not a microphone. Unless the mic was part of a headset or something. Idk, other comments may have the answer.
The mic is part of the headset, I was wondering why there are 3 contacts on the mic wire unstead if 2 (signal,ground)
