Microphone makes a difference

Yes, this is simple enough insight. It took a while to arrive at but I got there today, finally. One, the problem I have had with my MP3 player may really have been the microphone all along. It is a small unit from Giant Squid. I had purchased a stereo mic at Radio Shack and had trouble setting it up. If I set it to record mono, I got nothing. If I set it to record stereo it did record. Come to find out: The iRiver recorder requires a mono microphone to have a certain type of mono plug in order to record in the mono mode. If the Iriver detects a stereo plug it will automatically switch to stereo mode. To avoid this the "+" of the mic has to be connected to the the ring of the plug. "Tip" is left open. The Iriver thus detects it as a mono mic. Our iRiver Omni Mono Microphones are wired this way. So that is why! I ordered a new one today.