Microphones (READ ONLY ARCHIVE)

[SarahBarah]

I currently use a USB desktop mic (M/N A-0186A) to communicate with others on Skype.  I initially bought it because my ears are too sensitive for a headset and wanted to use this mic while gaming.  The features lists says that it's "Skype certified" and has noise canceling technology so I figured it would be perfect for my needs.

Well, it doesn't seem to cancel background noise at all.  In fact, it adjusts itself so that it PICKS UP background noise!  If I go to my Skype volume settings, my microphone always has 3 bars present when I'm not talking or playing any music/sound on my computer.  It seems to be picking up the sound of drafts and traffic sounds outside my house, 30 feet away from my closed windows.  Blowing into the mic seems to make it really quiet for a few seconds, then it gradually adjusts to pick up all of the unwanted noise again.  I don't understand why this is happening.  While I'm typing this up right now, the microphone adjusts to pick up the clicking sound of the keys, and when I wave my arm away from the computer it even picks up that as well.  This is a huge disappointment since I paid $30 for this mic and heard so many good things about it. I hope to find a solution soon.

[Mike_M]

Hi,

With Skype not running, what are your results with Windows recorder?

[SarahBarah]

I recorded a couple sessions using Windows Sound Recorder.  First one picked up the sound of me typing no problem, and the second one picked up my music at a reasonable volume.  I also noticed that blowing into the mic in sound recorder did not make the background noise go instantly quiet for a few seconds like it did in Skype.  Regardless, this microphone does not cancel background noise at all... my 15 year old flimsy desktop mic works better than this one, so something must be wrong.  Thinking it might have been my mic or my operating system, my boyfriend purchased the same mic to use on his Windows 7 desktop (I'm using Windows XP).  He experiences the exact same issue with excessive background noise as I do.

[Samiz0rz]

I have the same problem. Have you found any solution yet?

[Mike_M]

Hi,

I connected this mic to my Vista machine and my XP machine. I do not experience the issues you describe.

[Palino]

What kind of reaction is that ?!

People complain about the (rather expensive) mic not working as advertised, and all you say "works for me" ?!

I've bought 4 of these for frequent teleconferences we do, but the mic does exactly the same as any $2 mic + mute button.

Absolutely NO noise canceling whatsoever.

Can you at least explain what the mic does to cancel out noise ? If anything at all ?

[Falknir]

While the voice quality is good on these Logitech USB mics, 980186-0403, the background noise-cancellation simply does not work very-well at all. Of course, the passive windscreen is working, but like others have said soon as you stop talking or making a louder noise the noise-canceler starts to gradually raise the volume of all background noise up to a point. It's for whatever reason working in reverse of it's desired feature, i.e. lowering all background noise when not talking. I don't know if I can slip another windscreen or mic accessory on to remedy this in any real way (it might just raise the volume of background noise even more to compensate). I have been looking around already for some of these parts to experiment with, but the mic is easily picking up the very-silent woosh of air passing through the filters on my PC chassis, passing cars, in and out of room AC units, and so on.