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Electret mic amp?

S

shlemielo

Member
Hey guys,

I have an Olympus ME51s mic that I would like to use with my PC. Plugging it in directly to the mic jack gives some sound, but I have to crank the volume and boost up and it sounds pretty terrible if I do that. My laptop mic jack (Thinkpad X61), however, doesn't give any sound at all.

I've been looking at maybe getting a preamp to improve volume. Would something like this be what I'm looking for? Hopefully someone can help me out, I know this isn't the typical audio/HT topic.
 
Thanks for the reply. Seems like my mic needs plug-in power, which I'm guessing my sound card doesn't provide (or doesn't provide enough). I have a similar audio interface to the M-Audio Fast Track Pro -- it's the E-MU 0404 USB. Unfortunately it doesn't power the mic. Is there anything out there that can provide my mic with plug-in power and feed it into my line-in jack?
 
Electret mics need power. In the field this is called phantom power and is injected by a mixer, etc. An electret mic with a sound card will need its polarizing power source from the card and if plugged into an input without this source will not work at all. Powered electrets using a small power cell are needed with these inputs (or a preamp like the one pictured minus the element).
 
Phantom power is 30-48V designed for electret mics however the one you're using is connected with a mini jack 1/8" TRS, correct? It's definitely not designed for that kind of use.
 
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