Just a Question....

[Robbydude6t9]

well a friend told me that it's possible to use my headphones as a mic (a few day's ago) and i'm not sure how this would work and I don't wanna mess around with anything.....but if any of u have tryed this can u tell me how to do it or how it turned out?

[pangea33]

This idea is not technically wrong, but it is impractical. Moving the diaphragm of the headphone will send a signal back to the plug, allowing it to operate as a microphone in theory. The impedances are different though, so you'll get a very low volume from the headphone mic. Headphones have stereo plugs on them, while the mic input is mono. This means you'd have to cut the wire, and just connect the leads from one individual headphone to a proper plug. There might be an adapter available somewhere, but it's going to cost you as much as an el cheapo microphone.

[pave_spectre]

but it's going to cost you as much as an el cheapo microphone.

And give worse performance.

[Robbydude6t9]

well was just wonderin cuz i got no cash and really cheap headphones but i got speaker's u think i should do it......if it were u?

[pangea33]

You can probably find a very cheap microphone for around $5 at local stores. You're still going to pay $2-3 for the mono plug you'll need after ruining your headphones. Your results will be pretty bad and I wouldn't do it. If you can't come up with the few dollars, try asking around to friends and family. Somebody must have an old microphone from a tape recorder or something. Maybe try a thrift store, Goodwill, or a garage sale.

[Robbydude6t9]

ahhh u are smart people lol i'm prolly just real stupid

[Fruss Tray Ted]

There's a big difference between 'real stupid' and 'just haven't been around the block' as many times as we have.. ;)

Using a speaker or headphones for a microphone will have you yelling into it to get much signal or sound at all. Don't ask me why I know this please? :o :eek:

[roflmania]

wow, you really ought to fork out some $ to get an actual mic rather than using a speaker or headphones as replacement.

[Sylvander]

I think they teach this kind of thing in the early Science classes.

I remember doing this with an old pair of [moving coil? EX-Army?] headphones in the 50's.
Separated each headphone and connected them using a long 2 conductor cable.
I could speak into one while a friend listened to the other [and vice versa].
So the headphones worked as both microphone and earphone.

I guess they worked because there was a small copper coil attached to a [moving] diaphram that was placed in a magnetic field.
So when sound hit the diaphram, it vibrated and generated a weak alternating EMF and resulting current.
The current reciprocates back and forth in the conducting wires, and when it goes through the coil at the other end, since the coil is located in a magnetic field, a force is applied to the coil that makes it vibrate back and forth.
Since there is a diaphram attached to the coil it generates an output of air rarefactions and compressions [Sound waves].
The output sound is [approximately] identical to the input sound.

[pangea33]

Slyvander, your science is right, but you had better results because of the specific devices you were using. There has (not so) recently been a surge in people connecting old school phone handsets to their cellphones. Pokia is the name that comes to mind. Newer technologies use relatively cheaper electret microphones, instead of the carbon(?) microphones used in the past. Because of this, the voltages are a lot different now. Consider the turntable inputs on your home stereo. If you connect a dvd player, you'll get sound, but it will be at a relatively unusable volume because of the voltage/impedance.

[smith04]

... and just what would people think when they saw you talking into a set of headphones?

[Sylvander]

Possibly about the same as my dog was thinking as it watched me while I was reading a book on mathematics. :)