External Stereo Microphone - HTC U11

Sualdam · Mar 14, 2018

New member here, joined to try and stop myself going nuts trying to solve this.

Has anyone had any success connecting an external stereo microphone to the HTC U11 via the USB-C adapter?

Reason I ask is that I have been using a set of binaural head-microphones to record gigs I go to (personal use only), and smuggling the recorder in can be a bit of a pain as they tend to be rather indiscreet (if only someone made one that didn't have the microphone configurations built in to them).

It then occurred to me that I might be able to use my smartphone, along with an app such as RecForge II.

On paper, this works. But on trying it, although the adapter is recognised, the connected device only appears to be seen as headphones, and recording is from the front and/or back microphones on the phone - not the external one I have connected.

HTC said it might work but "they can't guarantee compatibility" (whatever that means). To me, a stereo signal is a stereo signal.

Any ideas? Is it even possible with HTC's bespoke USB-C config?

TIA everyone.

Hadron · Mar 14, 2018

I don't have an answer, but I can see no particular reason the adapter should support it. The adapter has really got 2 core functions:

1) output: where it's a USB-C Digital Audio standard compliant DAC+amp combo (the bespoke stuff is their "U-Sonic" headphones, the adapter works with any phone that supports the standard. I know this from direct experience, as well as internet discussions).

2) input: where it has to support inline mics on headphones during calls.

Since headphone mics are mono, there's no reason for them to have designed it to support stereo input - they may have done anyway, but it wouldn't be necessary. It's possible that the adapter firmware only supports those two functions, which would explain what you see. I would expect that this is what HTC mean by not guaranteeing compatibility.

This is just speculation, as while I do have 2 HTC adapters (which I use with my Pixel) I don't have the rest of the hardware I'd need to test it.

Now the U11 can be used with other USB-C Digital Audio compliant adapters (standards are good that way). I know people have used the RAZR adapter with it, and believe that the Essential and Google ones will work too (certainly the HTC adapter works with those phones). So if any of the other USB-C digital adapters supports stereo input it might be that what you want to do will be possible (provided the phone software also supports it). But I don't know whether any of them do.

Sualdam · Mar 14, 2018

Thanks for that, Hadron. I think you're probably right about stereo not being possible.
I'll update this if I find anything.

I think the RAZR dongle is only mono, isn't it?

It's so annoying that you can't buy a basic solid-state stereo audio recorder with a gain control without having those huge microphone arrays stuck on top.

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