under the wire

Steve Jobs and Sennheiser Mics

My favorite Steve Jobs anecdote comes not from an Apple employee, but an A/V technician who hooked up the CEO’s audio equipment for videoconferences many years ago.

The story went something like this:

Steve only uses one particular microphone — a Sennheiser — for all his teleconferences and presentations. It isn’t even the best mic for many situations, but he liked the way it looked and the way it felt when clipped on his shirt.

With most people, the A/V guy wires you up, runs the cable down your shirt and clips the mic on for you. But Steve insisted on putting the mic on by himself. He wouldn’t even let me touch him.