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How can I plug in both a microphone and speaker to a laptop with a single 3.5 mm jack?
My dad has a Lenovo Y700 laptop with only one 3.5 mm jack (green arrow in pic). He uses this laptop for video calls.
He must use the single jack for speakers, because it is impossible to hear people clearly with the laptop's own, shoddy speakers. That means for a microphone, he must use the laptop's builtin mic, which produces terrible audio quality for the other person.
He has Zalman ZM-MIC1, but how can he plug in both this mic, and the speaker?
I am hoping to avoid buying additional microphones, because we already have 5 spare standalone microphones and wish to save money.
2 answers
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He sees just 2 3.5mm audio jacks — see my green arrows. Correct?
No, clearly not. Since both holes are different sizes, at most one of them can be 3.5 mm.
It's hard to tell absolute sizes in your picture, but if any of the two holes is 3.5 mm, it would be the left one. The right hole looks too small.
If you have a microphone with a plug that fits into a hole that is marked as audio input, give it a try. It is quite unlikely that anything would get electrically damaged in that case. Make sure not to plug a microphone into an audio output port. That could damage the microphone.
If this doesn't work, consult the user manual for your laptop. Surely that tells you what kind of microphone, if any, the unit can accept. Then go out and get that kind of microphone. These things are cheap and available nowadays. It shouldn't cost more than a few cups of coffee.
But he already plugged his external speakers into it!
Then it's clearly an audio output, not an input. Microphones need to be plugged into inputs. The signals are coming from the microphone and going into the computer.
You are looking for a TRRS Headset Adapter
The Lenovo Y700 has a Combo Audio Jack designed for headsets that contain their own microphone. That means that the jack can handle both audio output and input at the same time.
There are different standards on how to make devices for this and the User Manual for the Y700 even states:
• The combo audio jack does not support conventional microphones.
• The recording function might not be supported if third-party headphones or headsets are connected, due to different industry standards
I personally own a Lenovo Legion Y740. That's not the same as your dad's Y700, but I suspect they would have the same technology for their Combo Audio Jack. I tested a TRRS Headset adapter on the Y740 to split the signals for the Combo Audio Jack into microphone and speaker and it worked.
If you don't want to worry about TRRS and want something that will work for any computer, your best bet is to buy a USB Audio Adapter. These are easily found at your favorite online retailer for around $10 USD (the same as the headset adapter) and feature both a microphone and headphone jack. I use the one below myself for video conferencing sometimes.
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