What model is this? Apple Branded Vintage Mic / Headset

[TimHD]

Hi, anyone know what model no, name or version this is and what Mac it would be compatible with?

Have had no luck getting my iMac G3 running OS X 10.4 Tiger to recognise it/accept input. 

Plug has 608-0012 on it, but not hits on the web for this.


 
https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/gallery/sizes/952-apple-headset-mic/medium/

 

[Elfen]

Those go to those All-In-Ones (AIO) PowerPC 5000 Series Macs; mostly for schools. The LC575 and 580 might fit them. 6200/6300 PowerPC Macs might fit them as well. I do ont know about other Macs, but I seen so many of these in schools that had the 5000 PowerPC AIO units, I know that they fit them.

 

[TimHD]

Was there any special software (drivers/apps) it needed?

Will give it a try on my 5400/225 Directors Edition Black Mac. 

 

[jamie marchant]

I think it's more than a software thing, my Performa 6400 would only accept Apple branded Mics. Maybe they are using a different voltage? Try plugging the mic into your 'line-in'* port.

* "Line-in is the PC term for it. 

 

[Cory5412]

This is a really neat find, I have never seen one like this before, and as far as I can tell, it may not have shipped stock with any particular system. However, if it did, I'd personally put it closer to being a component of, say, a 7000/8000 series machine, which would have been sold with multimedia communications components for business customers.

The long connector makes me think that it's comparable to the PlainTalk microphone. The PlainTalk mics started shipping with the 840av and 660av and continued through much of the G3 era. (The iMac/233 and Blue-And-White and Yikes motherboards accept this input) I believe by the time of the G4s, Apple dropped PlainTalk compatibility entirely.

But, as far as I know, there's nothing in the PlainTalk port for audio output. I wonder if it was paired with a specific card, or if it's purely a microphone?

 

[rsolberg]

I wonder much the same thing Cory. My guess is that tip=mic, ring=speaker, sleeve=ground. Perhaps some of the mono output Macs have a TRS headphone/speaker jack with mic input at the tip.

 

[Cory5412]

I can't think of any mono Macs off the top of my head that would be suitable for audio conferencing with something like this. Something like this would have to be contemporary to basically the 660/840 or newer.

Either Parrot or Jabra produced headsets at the time, but those broke out into a box with a "headphone" and a "microphone" connector.

 

[rsolberg]

I pondered over this one for a while. The ring portion of the plug appears to be significantly longer than a conventional 3.5mm TRS stereo plug. The ring portion appears to use the same space on the plug as both rings on a 3.5mm TRRS plug. Perhaps a 3.5mm TRRS jack is used on the compatible Mac (or AV monitor!) and if the two ring contacts are shorted by the headset's unique plug, the jack functions as mic in and mono out.

 

[Cory5412]

The connector in the original photo is literally identical to the Apple Plaintalk Microphone, which first started shipping with the 840/660, and continued shipping at least through the blue-and-white Power Macintosh G3 (where it was reissued with clear plastic.)

As far as I know, there's no room on that connector for different functionality, unless the regular PlainTalk microphone is a stereo mic, and you could use three total connections for both in and out on a mono headset.

I think the question remains: what systems and/or adapters and/or peripherals (audiovision/applevision?) worked with this mic, if it ever reached production.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

That looks like the Plaintalk connector to me - a goofy powered microphone connector that only Plaintalk-compatible Macs ever had.

Note that the physical design of that was a fairly common design - I had a few non-Apple microphones that looked just like that, with a more conventional microphone connection.  One came with a PC sound card, another with Dragon Dictate for PC.

 

[TimHD]

None of my macs seem to be able to use it - so no point of me holding onto it, so.....

Anyone interested in adding this to their collection?  

Silent Auction: Send me a PM with (i) your $/trade offer and (ii) what you plan to do with it* before 20 Nov 16 and I will let the winner know.

*Keen to see it goes to a good home where it can be used or be added to an existing Mac collection.

NB: Shipping from Aus.