Ibook And Stereo Audio-in Options

[jacqueg]

Hi folks, I have an iMic problem that the Griffin
folks have washed their hands of.

I bought the iMic both to digitize vinyl and to play digital
music files through my stereo. (Individual components, Denon receiver, probably 15 years old.) Haven't been able to get the stereo playback part of this transaction to work.

I have an iBook dual USB G3, running 10.3.2.

First problem: the iBook knows the iMic is there, but
the only way to get sound output through the iMic is:
open the sound control panel: check the mute box:
close the sound panel: reopen the sound panel: uncheck
the mute box. A friend of mine figured this out for
me, I just don't expect a Mac to pull this kind of cheap
Windows trick.

Second problem: When I do get sound through the iMic,
I can get stereo sound if I hook the iMic up to
powered computer speakers. Of course I can do that
without the iMic too. But when I hook up the
iBook/iMic to my stereo receiver, I only get sound on
one speaker, not both.

Has anyone successfully hooked up their iMac to a
stereo receiver using an iMic? Or with some other
device? From the way it's acting, it seems the iMic
only works with powered speakers, not with a
real stereo.

I'm not only not married to making the iMic work, after my experience with Griffin tech support, I'm eager to get them out of my life forever. Don't have the money or the need for high-end equipment, just something basic that works.

[divan]

hi
had some problems with the imic too. and i'm not the only one here. actually you can make it work, but the audio-quality isn't worth the work. there are folks here using usb-audio devices like tascam or m-audio. definitif a better choice.

acc2 your working speakers - but not on receiver/amplifier - see no reason why there should be a difference. dont hate me for this - but check the cables...

[jacqueg]

Thanks divan. I had already decided to look into the devices you mention, I'd love to hear your thoughts, or anyone else's, as to the pros/cons of each.

Regarding the cables - the tuner, the turntable, the VCR, the DVD player, the tape deck - all work fine through the receiver and cables as they are, i.e., I get stereo sound. What puzzles me is how on earth a receiver would know or care that it was getting sound input from the iBook and not, for instance, from the tuner, if the iMic were in fact putting out stereo sound.

Again, it seems to me that both the iMic and the iBook are expecting powered speakers at the other end of the cable, and are acting accordingly. I bought the iMic exactly because I know that the iBook won't put out stereo sound through a receiver, and I was under the impression that the iMic would, and I wanted to play digital files from the iBook over my stereo system.

I have bought the wrong tool for the wrong purpose before, and oh well, that's life. My beef with Griffin is that after multiple emails, they refuse to admit this, or even to say, "you should have bought the PowerWave."