Holly crow Jake, those are references some Apple fan-boy might provide, but you'll have to admit that everymac.com or MacTracker provides more and better Tech info than those type of Apple's pages do, and what most users are looking for are instructions for exactly how to do things and what they might need to do it with.
IE: In this case as far as this thread is concerned, is what is needed and if the audio input can be accomplished on a specific Mac model.
Again, the specs page clearly show no audio input interface. As for users looking for instructions for "how to do things and what they might need to do it with," do you really seriously think that is Apple's responsibility? They have clearly indicated that there are zero audio inputs to the machine on that specs page, so I think it is reasonable to think that anyone wanting to process audio would not buy that machine in the first place, but if they did, that they would do research into what is required to input audio. And that would lead them to discover that it requires third party equipment like some of these:
https://www.sweetwater.com/c695--USB_Audio_Interfaces and an adapter to connect to USB-c ports. And maybe more stuff specific to audio that I have no clue about because I am not an audio engineer. But any audio engineer who read that specs page and still bought that machine to process audio without knowing what would be required to do that simply didn't do their homework. I don't expect my automobile dealer to know how to use every third party after-market modification that could possibly be put into my car, so why would I expect Apple to be the expert on every possible third party after-market audio interface? Or any of them, for that matter?
Apple fails very badly with such support, which is frustrating and annoying considering that they prided themselves with being so multimedia progressive with their products, and audio input was such a basic standard for so many years.
Apple provides a lot of technical support online, through the support pages, for those who will go read. Try this as a starting point:
https://support.apple.com/macos and then work down through the many technical pages Apple offers. Will you find out how to input audio to that particular MBA? No, because Apple didn't build it in and Apple doesn't make an audio input interface. It would be the responsibility of the third party manufacturer to tell the buyer how to use their piece of equipment, not Apple. As I said, Apple is not the world-wide source of how every possible piece of equipment can be attached to an Apple device and used. Apple focuses on Apple, does a pretty good job in their online documentation and Help Menus.
In fact it has been so bad for many years now that some recording studio friends I know finally had to switch over to using Windows machines for some recording stuff, but have still kept their old G4 towers, but basically gave up on Apple and their lack of multimedia support and input ports as I understand their frustration.
- Patrick
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And if Apple wants to cater to that market, they will make devices with audio inputs, but that is their business decision to make. And anybody who keeps a G4 tower working well beyond a reasonable life rather than moving to a system that supports their recording needs with modern technology are the real fan-boys. If I were in that environment I would have moved off that antique onto any modern Windows machine in a heartbeat. And not be frustrated by it, because I'm not a fan-boy, just a user who uses his money to get systems that meets his needs instead of staying with a brand.
And the day Apple ceases to produce devices that meet my needs, I'll be gone. The computer is a tool, an appliance, not a religion. Stop meeting my needs? Buh-bye.
But I'm not holding Apple responsible to tell me how every one of those 206 audio interfaces at Sweetwater work. Not their job. Never has been. And if you read the description on the bottom of the page on that link, you'll see Sweetwater agrees. Leave audio to the experts.
Hey, I understand how some Apple fanboys loved the graphics and audio innovations of the early Apple products. That's what separated Apple from the many brands of Windows machines back in the day. But Apple moved on from that. And because they did, they started to be seen as serious computers for office applications instead of toys for a few graphic designers and audio engineers. They still have really good graphics with the iMac Pro and the eGPU concept, but they apparently have decided that audio input into the Mac is something best left to external, third party devices. In fact, with the newest MBPs, all you get for interfaces are the USB-c ports, so EVERYTHING input is going to have to go through that interface. But it's not reasonable to then ask Apple to describe, or even to keep track of, every third party manufacturer who makes a device with a USB-c connection that might connect to an Apple product. But from the design of the iMac Pro (which also has no audio input) it seems to be clear Apple has left that arena, at least for now. And if you don't like that decision, don't buy Apple products. Or buy Apple with the full understanding that getting the audio in to be processed will require an external device through the ports that are available on the particular machine.