On and off I’ve had some difficulty with hearing people with iChat when I used a headset. I always attributed this to my PlayStation 2 USB headset which is a rebranded Logitech model (it cost $15, but it worked). I finally got a new Plantronics M214i headset as it had a USB adapter and let me use it with one of my cell phones (I have 3, one personal which doesn’t have a 2.5 mm plug, an iPhone, and a Sanyo, the latter two being for work). I needed a wired headset as I have yet to have good luck with Bluetooth headsets. This option was excellent as I could use it with iChat and my cell phone.
I had an audio chat with someone today and had a little trouble hearing and attributed it to the headset even though it was brand new. I had a hard time believing this, so I poked around the system. First I checked out iChat’s preferences.
Nothing there to change the output volume, just select the USB adapter (the DSP55 Adapter shown in the picture).
Then I poked around the System Preferences in the Sound section and saw the following:
Since I want the normal output to goto the headphone jack, I didn’t change anything and played with the slider, but that didn’t help. I happened to click on the DSP55 Adapter and saw the output volume slider change. Bingo! The Output volume at the bottom of the pane is tied to the output device selected above. However, if you select Headphones again, the volume for the USB adapter remains the same. I tested this against an iChat test account and low and behold I was able to jack up the volume in iChat without changing the system volume.
This interface really confused me as I had no reason to change the “device for sound output” and would logically wouldn’t change it, set the volume and then change it back. iChat sound have the Output (and Input) settings right there in the iChat preferences. It isn’t that weird for one part of the OS to change a setting in another; for instance hitting the volume keys on the keyboard changes the Output volume in this dialog or using the volume Menu item. This is really a simple thing for Apple to fix in iChat.
(I don’t regret buying the headset even though my old one probably works fine as I needed one with a 2.5 mm plug on it; I’m on more conference calls these days than ever before and my Bluetooth headset didn’t cut it.)