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Griffin Technology Imic USB Audio Interface

Griffin Technology Imic USB Audio Interface

List Price:
Your Price: $36.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Shipping info is untruthful
Review: I'll tell you what I think. Your product page says it ships in 1 or 2 days, and now that I've ordered it, you say it won't ship for two weeks. I think you should update your product pages to reflect the truth.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This product is bulls#*t
Review: I'm using it to record NPR. I used to use a PCI sound card but got annoyed at all the noise and buzz coming from the computer. The solution was move the sound card outside the computer. It records faithfully and quietly. I'm not going to say it's easy to get it working under Linux, since sound is still not trivial, but I was successful and am very happy with this product.

I currently using Redhat Linux 9, with Alsa 1.0 patches and ecasound to do the recording. One upshot of switching to usb audio was that the quality of the recording improved so much that the size of the recordings got smaller. Now I get excellent sound quality using VBR and average about 12kbps.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Works on Linux
Review: I'm using it to record NPR. I used to use a PCI sound card but got annoyed at all the noise and buzz coming from the computer. The solution was move the sound card outside the computer. It records faithfully and quietly. I'm not going to say it's easy to get it working under Linux, since sound is still not trivial, but I was successful and am very happy with this product.

I currently using Redhat Linux 9, with Alsa 1.0 patches and ecasound to do the recording. One upshot of switching to usb audio was that the quality of the recording improved so much that the size of the recordings got smaller. Now I get excellent sound quality using VBR and average about 12kbps.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Documentation aside, a pleasure to use.
Review: I'm with the reviewers who were put off by the lack of documentation that comes with the iMic. On the other hand, the Griffin Technology Web site is terrific and full of up-to-date information and how-to's for iMic users. For instance, there's a freeware product just out called Final Vinyl that I wouldn't have known about if I only had printed instructions to go on.

I've dubbed bunches of LPs and tapes using this thing. I don't need it now that my new eMac has an audio-in port, but on my old iBook it's been great. Plugs right into the USB port and gives me just the right amount of gain for recording my old Lps and tapes. Using Sound Studio, all I do is hit record, clean it up afterward, mark the points between songs and then throw the whole kadoodle into iTunes. Couldn't be simpler. Uses very little power so I can plug it into my keyboard. The only caution I would give is not to let the computer sleep while using iMic -- waking it seems to create a little buzz in the recording.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: How can such a simple little gadget be so f***ed up?
Review: I've never, to my knowledge, given anything a one star rating in my life. But I've gone through all kinds of gyrations trying to get this little gizmo to work on my Five Flavors iMac and I'm ready to give up.

First of all, you read where it works with 9.0. Wrong. 9.0 won't even see it. So, after a 5-hour download I had to do while I was sleeping, I updated to 9.1 rather painlessly and tried it again. The system profiler detects it, yet it disables all sound. Can you beat that? I've tried everything. I've tried using different Audio extensions, I've tried downloading their iMic controller.

As of this writing, all of three days after I bought it from, well, a retailer other than this one, I have yet to get it to work, and I feel like I'm having to work too hard to make it work, especially in light of the fact that the website and the item's own booklet says it's supposed to work on an operating system even lower than mine. Somebody's lying, I think it's Griffin, and unless they work a little harder at telling the truth about their product I can't recommend this or any of their products to anybody.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Works fine.
Review: I've used the iMic on my Macs for the last three years. It works just fine. Note that the switch on the unit needs to be to the left if you use one of those cheapo "computer headset" units with a connected microphone as it's "mic-level" and not (as your Mac would otherwise require in a built-in analog-in port) "line-level". If you don't read the documentation, you have a 50% chance of setting this incorrectly. If you're really critical about the quality of the sound, spend a few hundred $$ for a PCI analog board but, for $..., it does the job very well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This gadget rocks!!!
Review: My laptop's sound card was crap so I decided to buy an external one. This thing is the best small gadget I've seen. I'm using it on Windows XP and it recognizes imic immediately. When you plug XP uses it, when you unplug (don't do while system using it) your previous setting is back. Also it comes with a recording and editing software for PC. Buy this, you won't regret. Did I say that the sound is so great? It rocks with my Sennheiser HD590.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Does what it needs to do.
Review: One of my systems had no standard 1.8" sound input. What I needed to do was use my headphones, so I purchased an iMic. You plug it in, it works, nothing more nothing less, it just works. On MacOS X if you have a USB digital audio interface, the system will use this as the default sound output.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Imic - A great external sound card for the buck
Review: The Imic is an external sound card and it's sound quality rivals that of comparable $100 dollar external sound cards. The only thing it is missing is a volume control on the device and alternative sound outputs, but it is $39 and for what it offers it is a steal. It has just standard Mic and Speaker inputs, with a digital/analog switch for the Mic.

The Imic requires no software and is automatically configured by your computer. You should go into your sound settings just to make sure the sound defaults are set to how you like them. You can actually use this with another sound card at the same time if you just want the superior mic input.

The CD that comes with the Imic just has demo software for you to try out and it says so on the packaging. $39 for such a nice sound card... which is also external has no comparison and it should not disapoint.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great integration with OS X!
Review: This device is a totally plug-n-play way of adding sound input capability to your Mac. It plugs into a spare USB port and accepts a mini mono mic/line input. G4 Macs, among others, come with a line in audio jack, but they have no mic input and can't amplify a mic enough to make it audible. So, if you want to use an unpowered mic for direct sound-in to your mac, this is a cost-effective way to go!

The driver came installed with Jaguar, so there was no installing to do - I plugged it into the USB port and the Mac OS immediately recognized it. It shows up in the 'Sound' pane of System Preferences and is easy to select. There's a handy level meter there, so you can twiddle the amplification just right.

I've used it for a couple months to DJ my live internet radio broadcast, which goes out over the "airwaves" as a 56K internet stream. I'm using it with a cheap Radio Shack combo phones/mic headset (nine bucks), and the sound quality is totally adequate. I'd agree with the manufacturer, though, that you oughtn't expect to use this for studio-quality sound; although I can't discern any distortion or hiss from the peripheral over my cheap speakers or headphones.

This device works best when plugged into its own USB port. I had trouble when using it on USB busses that already had a lot of activity.

It fails to get 5 stars because the cable is too short - only about 18 inches - not really even long enough to make it around to the front of the computer. Also, there's an occasional (once a week) bug/problem with sound degradation after the computer's been asleep. Unplugging and re-plugging in the peripheral fixes this problem, but it'd be nice if it wasn't there at all.

In short, if you need average quality mic-level sound input into your Mac, and price is important to you, this is the peripheral you need!


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