1 07 2016

The quality of my MacBook Pro 2012’s internal mic is simply the best. For a long time i wanted to do all my phonecalls using a headset instead of my phone, so finally i can do regular phone calls from both OSX and Linux via SIP over Asterisk/chan_dongle. Because of my dual-boot Linux setup Apple’s “handsfree” isn’t an option for me (besides the fact i don’t like the latest iPhones). Another drawback with handsfree is i always need to have the phone around, while my asterisk installation can be on the other side of the planet and me still be phoning over it.

Tests have shown audio quality suffers when using my headset’s microphone (Bose QC25). I LOVE to use my headphones though. The problem: as soon as you plug a headset into a MacBook Pro, you can’t use the internal mic anymore, as OSX will *only* allow you to use the external Mic. The net is full with posts about people buying special 3.5 to 3.5 adapters, Y-cables, etc. in order to trick the macbook thinking there is only a headphone without microphone plugged in.

This really is annoying and seems like it can’t really be fixed software-wise in OSX. At least i couldn’t find anything. I also really didn’t feel like buying yet another cable …

So here is my personal fix for the problem:

I’ve simply used a tiny piece of self-sticking aluminium foil. Short curcuit the 3rd and 4th ring and you’re done. First i put the foil all around, but it kept blocking when sliding in, and could only be used once. By just using a tiny tiny piece, it can repeatedly be used. – Solved!

Finally, i can have my headphones/headset plugged but still using the better internal Mic:

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