Headphones as microphone
Feb 10, 2009 at 7:25 AM Post #17 of 28
I've used my cheapy headphones as mic's before. Pretty sure plugging the headphones into the mic jack won't hurt them since I don't think they output any type of signal.
 
Feb 10, 2009 at 8:11 AM Post #18 of 28
Basically dynamic microphones and headphones are very similar - just a coil of wire attached to a diaphragm wiggling around in a magnetic field.

This was, in fact, how Sennheiser invented the open headphones, when an engineer took two microphone capsules and held them to his ears (but that's another story).

There have been some communications microphones that did the job of both microphone and loudspeaker - switching to loudspeaker mode when your finger was removed from the "mic." button.

BUT

If you want to connect your dynamic headphones to a mic. socket on a PC, MiniDisk, flash recorder, or the like you will need a special adaptor cable. These devices have about 5-Volts of "plug-in power" to power small electret condenser microphones. The adaptor cable will therefore need to have blocking capacitors in it to prevent this DC power getting to the headphones. Do this (or switch off the plug-in power) and you can then use your headphones as microphones (how good they will actually be is another thing as they were designed to be headphones and not microphones and the impedance may not be the best match - but it should work.)
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Feb 10, 2009 at 8:14 AM Post #19 of 28
Quote:

Originally Posted by yukihiro /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Pretty sure plugging the headphones into the mic jack won't hurt them since I don't think they output any type of signal.


Yes the *do* output a signal - they are likely to output 5V (or so) of DC voltage to power electret condenser mics. See my post above.


(deliberately left as two posts as you don't want a DC voltage being stuffed into the headphones)
 
Feb 10, 2009 at 8:18 AM Post #20 of 28
used ksc75's for ventrillo when i was CSing up in Hoboken..
Quote:

Originally Posted by boomy3555 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
some people over in the "Burn-In" threads I've seen actually attach 9v batteries to thier hp's to run current through them during the whole Pink, white,whatever noise thingy so a few volts d/c should be pretty benign


whoa whoa whoa who did that? dumbest thing ever. amps are designed with input/output caps just to get around DC biasing which can damage drivers by causing them to not fall back and stay in a resting position
 
Feb 10, 2009 at 6:27 PM Post #22 of 28
Quote:

Originally Posted by apatN /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Pretty cool. I did not know you could use headphones as a mic.


Since it's all about moving air, it's just hard to get the driver to move enough to create a signal from just the sound of your voice
 
Mar 22, 2010 at 8:47 PM Post #26 of 28
I used my Portapros as a mic one night. It was an interesting experience for those on the other end, but once I took the pads off and arranged it in a way so that I could speak into it, they worked fine.
 
Mar 22, 2010 at 11:33 PM Post #28 of 28
You can use any speaker as a mic. Whether that speaker is ideal for the job is another story. I can remember doing this when I was in junior high, and then getting ridiculed by a guy who told me I couldn't do it - so I showed up with my cassette recorder and this 10 inch driver to show him he was full of crap. It was a minor victory but one I insisted on having. An ego is a terrible thing to waste.
 

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