Mac Forum / General / Hardware / May 2006

True.  The iSight is pretty sweet.

Really, this depends on what you want to do, and what hardware you
already have.  If you have a microphone and headset you already like
with only 1/4 or 1/8 inch plugs then the iMic will allow you to use them
(with the appropriate jack/plug combination).  I'm not sure if the fancy
commercial/industrial headsets will work with the iMic; if you have one
of those you may have to do more homework.

If you are going to go shopping for a headset to use with the webcam (I
assume this is the purpose of your query) then just get a quality USB
headset that will work with the Mac and ignore the iMic.  Unless, of
course, you have nefarious plans for other things to do with the iMic,
like podcasting with a different microphone (&etc.)

One advantage to the iMic I can see is that it is very Mac friendly.  OS
X will see it as a proper audio device you will be able to refer to in a
normal manner.  With USB headsets it is a bit of a crapshoot, I've found.

They will work, but often take a bit of figuring out.  I have one USB
headset that works, but announces itself as "Unknown USB Device".  The
expensive Plantronics headset works ok, but the volume control tells OS
X to change the volume for the global output device.  That is, setting
OS X to provide the headset for Skype/chatting and the monitors for
everything else will allow the Plantronics volume control to modify the
volume as if you just hit the volume up/down key on the keyboard.  This
works ok if the headset is your only or primary audio out, but not in my
world, where I have different audio devices for difference purposes.

So, turning up a conversation in Skype will cause the system sounds to
the monitors to be increased.

A minor annoyance, but not very Mac-like.