iMic |
May, 17, 2003 1:48 PM |
rsouder4 |
I've just hooked up an iMic to my 7500 which has suffered the intermitent sound bug ever since I installed X. I was hoping this would be a cheap fix for the sound. For the heck of it, I plugged in the device while the mac was booted and sound was dead. I was able to switch sound in and out over to the iMic and sound one again worked through the iMic. Being fairly excited at this point, I tried a quick time movie.... not only did the sound die, but my entire USB chain died with it.... and required a reboot. This suggests to me, that the sound problem is purely a bus-timing issue rather than an old world sound system issue. I haven't done a whole lot of playing around yet with the USB chain to see if I can improve things, but thought I'd post and see if anyone has any thoughts. Currently the iMic is plugged into a hub, so going directly to the mac will be the first thing to try, but any other ideas would be welcomed. |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 30, 2003 6:51 PM |
rjbailey |
. |
I lost sound again today for the first time since installing my USB card/iMic combo. This may have been related to exceptionally heavy disk activity but I don't really know. A restart brought it back up again. I agree with paul_findley in that this a more robust configuration that the on-board audio. |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 28, 2003 5:11 PM |
ivanxqz |
. |
For what it's worth, I've been using an iMic with NO problems on a PowerBook 2400c with MacAlly USB card. The card has two ports on its dongle; the iMic is attached to one, and the other feeds two el cheapo hubs which seem to work fine for my other USB needs (printer, 802.11b USB adapter, PowerMate, Keyspan Digital Remote, Nomad JukeBox, etc). In fact, the iMic output feeds both the stereo and an "on-hold" box I bought from Radio Shack. This allows me to listen to streaming baseball games from any phone (my cell phone more specifically). Ivan. |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 25, 2003 12:41 AM |
paul_findley |
. |
I tried the imic a while back, and it has taken care of MOST of the sound problems on my 7500/G4 800. It will occasionally flake out when I play something really challenging, like DV clip sound from imovie, but otherwise, it is much more robust than the motherboard sound. It is interesting that the dying is often correlated with the breaking up of sound on an over-taxed computer. I don't have any IDE stuff, accept for external firewire which uses an ide bridge. I heard sound on these old world macs is more challenging to play back from IDE drives, but I can't remember where I read that. I do have plenty of stuff on the PCI bridge (ATI Mac Edition, ATTO U2LD SCSI adapter), but it doesn't seem to bother the imic. I would take issue with the statement by someone here that a $17 USB2 card can't be any good. My name brand (IO Gear) USB2 card wouldn't function at all under OS 9 (not even as a 1.1 card, as it should). I popped in an ebay no-namer (USB2 + firewire) and it worked fine under both OSX and OS9. The chipsets are so standardized (NEC, VIA, TI), and the chip makers provide reference designs for the end guys who put there name brands on, so it would take a really bad mfg to mess one of these up. Once in a while, you will find an end product that isn't quite OHCI-compliant (like the IO GEAR), and the apple driver (in this case the OS 9 one) wouldn't load. I suspect the newer IO GEAR cards don't have the problem. I bought one of the first ones out the door. |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 23, 2003 9:10 PM |
rsouder4 |
. |
That might help, but it's not necessarily what I wanted to hear. You mentioned using a SCSI drive which points back (surprise) to my ATA card. I'm probably just trying to push too much through my pci bus. |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 23, 2003 11:21 AM |
rjbailey |
. |
FYI, I've got the USB card in the bottom slot (nearest the floor). I've got an old video card and a 100MB ethernet card as well. I've not tried swapping positions of any of these cards. I have a single 18GB SCSI drive in the computer and a couple of external SCSI drives too. I hope this helps. |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 23, 2003 9:06 AM |
marcush |
. |
FYI, if you have an extra slot for it the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 PCI sound card also works extremelely well. It may be more expensive depending on deals ($65- check megamacs.com & compusa) but it is well worth the money. I almost went with a USB solution myself but after talking to reps at the M-Audio booth at Macworld I decided to go PCI because it has better bandwidth. I was going to get their external usb version of the Revolution. |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 23, 2003 7:48 AM |
mikem17 |
. |
To rjbailey..... glad to hear that your 8500 has audio now that you are using imic. I also have an 8500 and in order to have audio I had to give up on the large ATA hard drive and go back to smaller SCSI drives. Can you tell me more about your system Hardware. Do you use any ATA drives? Thanks, Mike M. |
. |
RE: iMic supports simultaneous in and out |
May, 23, 2003 7:38 AM |
nick.ashton |
. |
iMic does support simultaneous audio out and audio in. rsouder is right in saying that the switch is for changing the sensitivity of the input port to support either line-level or microphone signals. I think the name "iMic" doesn't really do the product justice but I suppose the marketing guys would object to iAudioInputOutput. |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 23, 2003 6:26 AM |
rsouder4 |
. |
The function of the switch isn't well documented, but if I remember correctly it is for switching the level of the audio input from line level to microphone level. Somebody correct me if this is wrong. I know some people are having success with the imic, but you may want to see my original post as well. I'm using an orange micro usb/firewire combo card. |
. |
RE: USB card plus iMic: IT WORKS! |
May, 22, 2003 11:55 PM |
tomquinlan |
. |
I thought the iMic was just for sound IN until reading your message rjbailey. Now I see from Griffin's web site that it has line level output as well. After doing some reading it seems that you can use the iMic for sound-IN or sound-OUT but NOT both simultaneously because you must flip a switch between the two ports to activate one or the other. Apparently, Griffin put the sound out port there because the circuitry needed was already in the device. Can any iMic owners confirm that you must switch between audio IN and audio OUT? Tom |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 22, 2003 7:17 PM |
rsouder4 |
. |
rjbailey... What slots do you have your cards in? I haven't played the card swaping game yet, but would like to hear from someone who has sound working (with or without the imic). |
. |
RE: USB card plus iMic: IT WORKS! |
May, 22, 2003 11:48 AM |
rjbailey |
. |
For the first time ever, I'm able to listen to iTunes on my 8500. Following the suggestions posted here, I bought a USB card ($15 on eBay, it's acually a USB 2.0 card with two USB ports from Iogear), installed it, plugged in my iMic, and I get sound. It works almost perfectly. I'm able to select alert sounds and adjust sound volume without problems, and iTunes is perfectly functional. The only hitch is a static-y noise during times of heavy processor load, but that's not often and it's not annoying. I wish I'd done this a long time ago. |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 21, 2003 12:55 AM |
becherer |
. |
$17.00?? think about what you are buying. a usb 2.0 card for 17 bucks is going to be flakey. spend the money and get a quality product. i run sound out a 1980 vintage Sanyo cassette deck, though an imic, an orange micro usb 2.0 hub, an orange mirco usb 2.0/firewire card and it sounds great. -bech |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 20, 2003 11:32 AM |
Lukeoutpost |
. |
Hey MJoe CUps just wondering whered you get that USB2 card that cheap? |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 19, 2003 10:07 PM |
rsouder4 |
. |
Bypassing the hub made no difference. Since I'm using a usb / firewire combo card and need both, the $17 dollar switch won't work for me. I suppose the next course of action is to play with the order of my ata card, usb/firewire card and video card. It's just hard to get motivated to do that when everything else is working. The sound thing on my sys. seems stranger than most I've read about so far because it will often go for days or weeks with on board sound working and then just suddenly die. Other times, I can't hardly keep it working. I've not really been able to establish much of a pattern (ie a sure-fire way to kill the sound ). |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 19, 2003 2:03 PM |
mjoecups358 |
. |
You are correct sir! This PCI bus timing issue is alos not limited to our older systems... You can even see people with supported hardware having this same problem over at apple's dicussion forums. Also, strangely I did discover that swtiching to a USB2 PCI card made by NEC made my audio lock up/PCI issues dissappear on at least one system. This USB2 card was only 17.00$ (US) so it was a great cheapo fix for me. It is documented somewhere in the bowels of these here forums if you have a great deal of patience. Marty |
. |
RE: iMic |
May, 19, 2003 11:09 AM |
marcush |
. |
I think you are right. Plugging the iMic directly into your USB port rather than the hub may be the solution, especially if the draws power directly from the power supply rather than the pci bus. Moving the card closer to the processor might also help. |
|
|