How to use a analog microphone plugged into Realtek ALC1220 chip in PipeWire
I got a microphone connected via a XLR adapter to the rear mic jack of my mainboard. The audio dialog of KDE seems to detect that, as does not mark it as not connected (which it does for the front mic and line in). But selecting the audio device as source does not produce any useful sound.
What makes you sure that the mic work, you may ask? If I enable the loopback in alsamixer (and pump up the boost), it works. Unfortunately, that is the only way I can get sound out of that.
It seems, as if the system realizes two possible sources from the audio device. But there is no option GUI wise where I can select the second input to test if that helps.
Given that you have to pump up the boost a lot to hear anything, I suspect the mic is not getting phantom power? XLR is usually 48V, whereas mic jack plug in power is usually only 5V or so.
That might be the case, but despite this, I would like to receive the miniscule signal I can loop back in my system. But do dynamic microphones require phantom power?