If the microphone has an attached headphone, then it is called a headset. In
PC (Personal Computer) s, nearly these are
nearly always integrated. You can spend an incredible range on a headset for your PC.
Even with a simple
PC, it is
possible to record voice or music and prepare to play on the Internet or as part of your own computer programs.
You can also use it for speech to text Dragon Naturally
Speaking or hand-free control of your computer. There are two major problems to solve:
- Sound quality
- Compressing the sound to conserve storage and band width
If you don’t compress, your audience will give up waiting for all but the shortest of clips.
To get decent sound quality you need three things:
- A high-quality microphone. Count on spending
up. For speech-to-text, a mono headset with only one ear covered will suffice. For listening to music or web
presentations, you will want a stereo headset.
- A low-noise sound card microphone or aux-in hookup. This might be an external USB (Universal Serial Bus)
POD (Persistent Object Database), or a sound card with
a front mounted jack, that is shielded from all the other RF-noisy computer components in the rear of the
computer or near the monitor. The mike may plug straight to the sound card, or via your stereo or other
amp.
- An appropriate sampling rate. 8-bit 8 kHz is
what you might get from a telephone. 16-bit 48
kHz is CD (Compact Disk) quality.
You will need some recording an editing software such as GoldWave. The Recorder that comes with Windows is just a toy, mainly useful for
testing your hardware is working.
You then need software to compress without too much quality loss to a popular WEB format such as Mp3,
Silverlight or RealAudio.
For streaming audio, you may need a special server. Even when compressed, audio is very bulky taking up many
times the storage or bandwidth of the equivalent transcripts. If you are not careful, using it will soon bankrupt
you with the Internet fees for broadcasting it.
Doing live Internet Radio broadcasts is considerably more difficult. You have to do all this, especially the
compression, in real time.
Desirable microphone features include:
- Noise cancelling. Electronics measure background noise and generate a negative noise signal added to your
voice signal to cancel out background noise. You definitely want noise cancelling in the microphone. You may
also want it in the headphone.
- A POD. The electronics to convert the analog to digital fit in a little box that sit
on your desk. Only a digital signal goes into your PC, usually via a USB.
The idea is to keep the
delicate analog signal away from the electrically noisy desktop case. Only the robust digital signal goes into
it. This gets rid of hum and other jittery computer electrical noise. Nuance, the makers of Dragon Naturally Speaking posts a list of high quality microphones with a rating of how
good they are for speech to text.
- If it has minijacks, you can use an adapter to also plug them into your stereo. You plug the earphone jack
in and leave the microphone jack unconnected. The single microjack pin has both signal and ground
connectors.
- Low impedance, <60Ω, especially if you plan to use a long cord.
- Microphone mounted on a headset in such a way you can precisely position the microphone without it wiggling
away from where you put it.
- Wireless. This is rare since continuous use rapidly exhausts batteries. The problem is the batteries run
out after about 3 hours. The wider the range, the faster they wear out.
These headsets are in ascending order by list price. This approximates the order of street price.
$22.00 |
recommend electronic⇒Syba SD-CM-UAUD Analog to USB Adapter |
| asin: B001MSS6CS |
| It lets you inexpensively turn any headset with minijacks into a digital USB headset. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
$39.95 |
recommend electronic⇒Sennheiser PC 131 stereo Headset |
| asin: B000NH4EI4 |
| non-USB headset, noise-cancelling microphone. Minijacks. Microphone: 80 Hz — 15 kHz. Earphones: 30 Hz — 18 kHz. Specs |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
$39.99 |
recommend electronic⇒Koss SB40 Computer Headset |
| asin: B00005ML7T |
| non-USB headset, Minijacks, not noise-cancelling. Earphones: 20 Hz — 20 kHz. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
$49.99 |
recommend electronic⇒Logitech ClearChat Pro USB Headset |
| asin: B000TG4AGU |
| USB headset with earphones and noise-canceling microphone. Microphone: 100 Hz — 10 kHz, filters out low frequencies. Earphones: 20 Hz — 20 kHz. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
$49.99 |
recommend electronic⇒Logitech Digital Precision PC Gaming Headset |
| asin: B000RVD89M |
USB headset with earphones and noise-canceling microphone. This is what I own myself. It was not my first choice, just the best I could find at local retailers. - Nice crisp sound. No background hum or hiss. They were so quiet at first I thought they were not working.
- Noise canceling microphone that works extremely well. When I record now, I hear dead silence whenever I am not speaking.
- Long 10 foot cord.
- Nice cushiony grip on the ears with an open gap at the top for air circulation.
- Does not need a driver. It uses the built-it Microsoft driver. You just plug it in and go. It was even easier to get going than an analog headset.
- Behind-the-head grip is just as idiotic as it looks. It squeezes your head uncomfortably and keeps slipping down. The band should be on top.
- Not truly digital. They are analog headphones with a separate digital USB adapter. The signal is analog for 3 meters (10 feet) or more then digital for the last 10 cm (4 inches) This defeats the point of digital. I suppose a purist could insert a USB extension cord to get the analog part further away from the electrically noisy computer box. However, they are substantially lower noise than conventional headphones where the analog signal has to wend its way inside the computer near all manner of noise sources.
- You can’t adjust the microphone directly in front of your mouth. It is always way off to the side.
- There is no noise-cancellation in the earphones.
- There is yet another volume control to fiddle with on the cord. I wish volume were controlled in one place only!
- Not certified for use with Dragon Naturally Speaking.
- The left and right sides are not labeled.
- They are very delicate. After being dropped on a carpet just once, they fell apart and would never stay assembled again. Further the left sound or both would cut out if I did not hold the cord just so. They are very flimsy construction. I would not recommend them for this reason.
Microphone: 100 Hz — 16 kHz, filters out low frequencies. Earphones: 20 Hz — 20 kHz. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
$59.95 |
recommend electronic⇒Sennheiser PC 151 stereo Headset |
| asin: B001KWXWKW |
| non-USB headset, noise-cancelling microphone. Minijacks. Microphone: 80 Hz — 15 kHz. Earphones: 18 Hz — 22 kHz. Specs. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
$59.95 |
recommend electronic⇒Sennheiser PC 36 USB Stereo Headset |
| asin: B001SN8QJ0 |
| USB headset with earphones and noise-canceling microphone. Microphone: 80 Hz — 15 kHz. Earphones: 40 Hz — 18 kHz. Not particularly impressive bass. Specs. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
$59.95 |
recommend electronic⇒Sennheiser PC 230 traditional Stereo Headset |
| asin: B003XQDYGK |
| non-USB headset with earphones and noise-canceling microphone. Microphone: 80 Hz — 15 kHz. Earphones: 18 Hz — 22 kHz. Specs. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
$99.95 |
recommend electronic⇒Sennheiser PC 330 Game Headset |
| asin: B003DA4D34 |
| non-USB headset with earphones and noise-canceling microphone. Microphone: 70 Hz — 15 kHz. Earphones: 14 Hz — 22 kHz. Specs. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
$99.99 |
recommend electronic⇒Corsair Dolby 7.1 USB Gaming Headset |
| asin: B005QUQP7G |
| Corsair CA-9011112-WW Vengeance 1500 Dolby 7.1 USB Gaming Headset, USB headset with earphones and noise-canceling microphone. Microphone: 100 Hz — 10 kHz. Weak at low frequencies. Earphones: 20 Hz — 10 kHz. Specs. |
|
$179.95 |
recommend electronic⇒Sennheiser PC 166 USB Stereo Multimedia Gaming Headset |
| asin: B000H0IDUW |
| USB headset with earphones and noise-canceling microphone. Microphone: 80 Hz — 15 kHz. Earphones: 15 Hz — 23 kHz. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
A German company, Roccat, makes a headset, the Kave, with 5.1 and another, the Kulo, with 7.1 surround sound. The
Kave is only about
The Kulo, surprisingly is cheaper at about
punctuation 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z (all)
©1997-2012 2008-02-18 Roedy Green, Canadian Mind Products
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