IMac microphone compatibility

I am on my third headset that I've purchased for use with Skype on my iMac. All three headsets have failed to work on both my iMac and my MacBook. The headsets use two jacks, one for the headphones and one for the mic. It's the mic that doesn't work on either machine on any of the three headsets.
Anyone have any experience with this? These microphones are "electret condenser" type mics. And they apparently need some amount of power from the mic jack. There are three leads on the jack.
I called applecare and they didn't really even know the answer to this. Although the tech said he'd had the same problem, and ended up using a USB adapter for his headset (which is essentially a little soundcard). They guessed that the mic jacks on these machines don't supply power, but I could definitely tell it was a guess.

Macs use mics which supply at minimum line level audio signal input. If the mic cannot supply that on its own you need a preamplifier to add the umph.
In addition to USB headsets, there are some Bluetooth headsets that also work with Macs.

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