Microphone jack to usb

[TimiTheGreatful]

Hello I have a good Logitech microphone but I can't connect it to my pc. The problem is that the microphone is a microphone jack (pink wire) and my new pc doesn't have that. I was wondering if there is a adapter I can use. I have a USB port so I'm wondering if I can convert the pink wire to usb. If so, will I loose quality?

 

[Paperdoc]

A microphone plug only plugs into a jack designed for it. It is an analog device; its signal must go into an analog amplifier and then be converted to a digital signal. This requires an audio card of some sort. The most common types are either built into your computer (could be either rear jacks or a front pair of microphone and headphone jacks) or an add-on card in a PCI slot. It is also possible to buy "sound cards" that are really external boxes that connect to your computer via a USB port, rather than being an internal PCI card. But you're still buying and installing an audio card that provides the analog input amplifier and digitization services, whether it is an internal card or an external box connected via USB. There is NO way to simply connect an analog mic to the contacts of a digital serial communication bus like USB.

Your computer may not have a audio jacks on the back panel, but does it have two jacks on the front for a headphone set (often green color code) and a microphone (often pink color code)?

 

[TimiTheGreatful]

I have a laptop.

 

[Paperdoc]

OK, so you cannot add a sound card inside. But does the laptop have both a headphone jack and a microphone jack? You could use that.

If not, you need to buy a USB Sound card for a Laptop, something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829118008&cm_re=usb_sound_card_for_laptop-_-29-118-008-_-Product

There are lots of others, many cheaper, but I don't know how good any of them are. Two things I note in the lists I saw:
There are a few that are ONLY stereo sound outputs. The link above has 2-channel output and mic input. Others have more output channels, like 5.1 or 7.1 capability, which you may not need.

 

[Cons29]

i think most (if not all) laptops have an input and output audio jack. take a closer look, there should be a symbol right beside the port.