Headphones with mic

[bruce]

Short version:

Looking for recommendations for headphones with decent mic. Analogue or USB interface. What do you recommend?

 

 

Long version:

I do community radio. Our presenters can’t travel to the studios. We’re putting together recipes to allow them to broadcast live, or prerecord, or voicetrack from home, using as far as possible the kit they have already. In most cases, that means a home PC/mac/laptop/, and a Skype-style headset.

 

So far I’ve got solutions for most scenarios, but want to improve the audio quality.

 

So I’m actually looking for a few different ideas.

 

Firstly, I’m looking for recommendations for headphones with a decent quality microphone for speech. Most of the ones I’ve experimented with sound a bit “thin”, as they’re aimed at skype/etc.

 

USB or analogue options considered - while some of our team may have USB audio interfaces, or small mixers with USB ports, others won’t.

 

And here’s a more esoteric request - does anyone know of a USB Skype-style headset which is compatible with ASIO4ALL drivers?

I’ve got a software environment where people can live stream from their laptops, using a Skype-style headset. Works really well, except for one thing - monitoring. When I hit the “mic live” button, the delayed signal coming back into the headphones is delayed just enough to be really off-putting.

This can be fixed by using ASIO drivers instead of the default direct sound, but of the 2 USB headsets I have here, I’ve had disappointing results.

My expensive Jabra one just wouldn’t work at all with ASIO4ALL, giving an “invalid sample rate” error.

My cheaper Plantronics one was a little better - it recognised the mic, and it also recognised the headphones, but treated them as 2 separate mono outputs rather than a stereo pair. So I could select left or right ear, but not both. But the latency was far better than Directsound. I guess that’s useable at a push....

[mackerr]

Short version:

Looking for recommendations for headphones with decent mic. Analogue or USB interface. What do you recommend?

 

Why does it have to be a headset mic combo? There are many decent USB mics they could use with a regular pair of headphones. Doing the 6-8 shows a week we are doing at Practical Show Tech I use an old AKG C2000B, a mic I found less than ideal as a pro mic, but it is fine as a vocal mic for webcasts. I usually just listen on my computer speakers, but the other 2 hosts use their Apple Airpod Pros, but any headphone that can plug into a computer would be fine.

 

I think a separate mic and headset can be had for not too much money and will sound better and last longer than a headset/mic combo.

 

Mac

Edited April 4, 2020 by mackerr

[david.elsbury]

Audio Technica have some nice headsets (look at their commentator products) but not USB as far as I know

[mackerr]

Short version:

Looking for recommendations for headphones with decent mic. Analogue or USB interface. What do you recommend?

I think a separate mic and headset can be had for not too much money and will sound better and last longer than a headset/mic combo.

 

Mac

Another alternative would be a USB mic with a direct headphone out. Obviously this is a USA store and price, but an example of the product type. This USB mic has a direct headphone out that also hears program from the far end.

 

Sweetwater

 

Mac

[bruce]

Thanks all.

I guess my original message was posted in frustration at not being able to get any of the mic+headset combinations that I have nearby to work with ASIO4ALL....

 

I have always quite fancied a decent headset mic - not quite sure why though :-)

 

Personally, I’ve moved to a small USB mixer, a pair of DT100s and a “proper mic” - but I’m still interested to see if there’s a budget headset mic combo that will do the job.

[dbuckley]

If you do come up with a good solution, please post, also interested in a good solution, for the same problem.

[bruce]

Still looking. The Plantronics option is the closest I’ve managed so far. Can get the Asio4all drivers to work for mic and for either ear - but not both ears as a stereo pair.

it’s useable.

 

Another useful thing I’ve found - “mixxx” - from mixxx.org. It’s virtual DJ-type software, free and open source, windows/mac/linux.

I turn off and hide most of the beat-matching features, set it up with 4 cart players and a mic, and it’ll do all your playout and mixing - even has built-in streaming to icecast/shoutcast. So a laptop with a library of music, a headset and mic, and that’s all you need. No virtual audio cables etc. If I could get a USB headset and mic that did ASIO4ALL properly, it’d be great.

I’ve tried it a couple of times now, once with an external USB mixer, and once “single eared”.

 

 

Other nice thing about a decent headset mic would be that most of the team are now working in acoustical challenging spaces (spare bedrooms, garages, kitchens) rather than a studio - so having a headset mic keeps the mic at a constant distance from mouth, and minimises the impact of the ambient surroundings.