[userbinator]

Not sure if it's mentioned in the article but microphones can be speakers too...

Only dynamic mics, which are relatively rare and seldom encountered without an attached preamp. The vast majority of mics for PCs are condensers and electrets.

Anything can be a speaker, briefly and only once, if you apply enough voltage to it...

[analog31]

I think you have this backwards. Condensers and electrets (a form of condenser with a permanent charge on one terminal) almost always have a built-in preamp. The reason is that they cannot drive a capacitive load of any magnitude, and their outputs must be buffered before being fed to any wiring.

Like another post mentioned, dynamic mics like the Shure SM58 mentioned here, can drive a cable directly or through a small built-in transformer. They're still used in live sound, though condensers have become quite common there too. Condensers still tend to have somewhat better behavior, such as signal-to-noise, than electrets.

Of course everything has to be amplified or fed to a digitizer at some point. The issue is where the preamp needs to be physically located.

[Anechoic]

* The vast majority of mics for PCs are condensers and electrets.*

These can be run in reverse as well, it requires CB custom electronics so it’s not something a lay person can do out of the box.

[atoav]

Huh? The standard stage mic, the Shure SM58, certainly is dynamic and has no preamp.

But you probsbly think about smaller form mics like found on headsets (Electrets).

[userbinator]

Yes. I don't think many PCs would have a stage mic plugged into them.