I was discussing AntLion mod mic with someone and magnets were mentioned. As far as I remember, the mod mic uses one to hold itself in place. Wouldn't that influence the sound quality?
Doubtful. Hell, there's a magnet both in the headphones you're attaching it to, and the mic it's self. MAGNETS EVERYWHERE!!!! I'm sure it's fine.
That's precisely the reason I'm worried though. Won't the magnetic fields interfere? There's enough magnetic field on the outside of my headphones to move a needle.
Still no. It's nowhere near strong enough to influence anything inside your headphones significantly enough to impact anything. Besides, it's the fluctuation in magnetic field that matters in speakers. Since this outside magnet isn't fluctuating, it's not going to impact how the sound is produced. Now, if you had a super powerful magnet, it could have an impact. But just through pure force exerted on the coil/magnet inside, rather than it's impact on the electrical/magnetic fields... unless you decided to continually move it for some reason, or if it was a variable electromagnet... but now we're just getting absurd.
That little magnet on your mod mic isn't going to hurt a thing.
Nobody has ever mentioned that as an issue that I know of, so I'd assume it'd be fine. I'd also assume that the drivers in headphones have some sort of shielding on them. If you put a nail near your headphones, will it stick?
A nail won't, but a sewing needle just about does. Sound quality is very sensitive, so I wouldn't mind if someone with the mod mic to experiment a little. I would hope that the actual magnet is in the microphone part of the attachment, not in the glue-on part, so it would be less relevant when you're not using the microphone.
Aren't magnets used to help with the response of speakers? I don't see how an extra magnet would harm anything.
Like I said above, unless it's moving (and probably 20 times as strong), it's not going to affect a thing sound quality wise. That's just not how speakers work. You can test this yourself if you have a small magnet handy. But if you're this irrationally paranoid about it, then don't get one. Just get a Zalman clip on or use a desktop mic of some sort. Then you're mind can rest easy.
Oh I will give it a try at some point, including the fast movement. Just can't find a small magnet handy right now.
Nope the magnet isn't located anywhere near the microphone. When connected to the headphones the magnetic fields are cancelled out. Unless you plug in the mic and put the microphone near one of the magnets you shouldn't be worried (I doubt even if you put the microphone close to one of the magnets it would have an effect)
The voice coil is going back and forth up to 17000 times a second for the highest frequencies one can hear. The magnet in proximity to the voice coil will add some force to the system causing it to speed up more slowly, and return faster. This will 'slur' the sound waves which will get more and more noticable the higher the frequency.
However the force is probably so small compared to the magnet on the voice coil that the distortion would probably not be detectable to the human ear. However best to attack the magnet as far away from the centre of the speaker as possible ;)