Ask HN: Audio Setup for Online Meetings
I do a lot of video conferencing, mostly with screen sharing. I thought I had a good audio setup until I took a call from my car, and it was so much better. I don't have anything fancy installed in my car (just the basic setup for not so interesting Japanese car). I understand that the acoustics in the car are different from my room, but I still want to improve my audio quality.
Do you have any recommendations?
My personal setup is:
No Bluetooth, no earbuds with microphone, no internal microphones. Although, when I'm away from my desk, my wired headphones has a mic. But it's a better one than what I've seen on some earbuds.I have the same kinds of problems with Microsoft Teams. In my case the audio is often garbled and unintelligible, lots of dropouts due to multiple people speaking at the same time, and even on a good day it sounds like everyone is meeting in the bottom of a garbage bin.
I've tried various conferencing pucks (EMEET Luna 360 and M0, Jabra 410 and 510, both hard-wired and Bluetooth) and none of them seem to work well with any of my systems (various late model Dell Latitude and Inspiron laptops, mini- and micro-towers) running Windows 7 / 10 / 11.
I've also tried various models of iPads and iPhones, and the audio is just as bad. Pretty sure it isn't a connection issue either (FiOS with constant 1Gb up and down).
Would an external DAC help? Headphones or earbuds with a good microphone? A dedicated portable system I can use for video conferencing?
Teams just sucks. But yes, isolating other participants from your own voice (ie using a dedicated microphone and wearing headphones) will help a lot. That way, it won't have to try to do noise cancelation.
Also, it will sound a lot better if they are two separate devices (vs one Bluetooth headset with an integrated mic) because of the protocols involved. Bluetooth full duplex has really low bit rates and sounds like crap. A wired headset doesn't have that issue, nor would separating out the headphones from the mic into two devices (like USB mic and Bluetooth headphones). Just make sure to configure the software to actually use the separate mic as its input.
An external DAC is almost certainly a waste of money for this use case. The built in one is fine.
What do you mean by the audio setup and quality? Are you mostly talking about how you sound (the microphone) or how other people sound (your speakers)?
One thing that comes to mind is that some Bluetooth headphones (like Airpods) will default to a much lower quality protocol if you use it as a headset (both mic and listening) vs just listening. Using a standalone mic (whether your laptop's or an external one) will help that.
It could also be that your car has better noise cancelation in the cabin than you do in your home office. But usually apps like Zoom do that in software anyway. If you need to further enhance that, there are apps like Krisp.ai can do an even better job.
Otherwise, maybe a speaker upgrade is in order? A $50 soundbar or set of speakers should be a huge upgrade from a laptop's internal speakers.
What’s your operating system? That could be useful to know for recommending a suitable solution.
Also, what software do you use for video conferencing?
Windows 10/11. Mostly zoom.
Related: What about Linux users? Any recommendations?
Most of the stuff I said in the sibling threads apply across operating systems (and even mobile). Specifically:
* Bluetooth full duplex (talk and listen on the same device) is terrible and should be avoided at all costs. This is a limitation of the Bluetooth protocols, regardless of operating system. It's most obvious if you have music playing over the headphones when you switch to headset mode (which uses a different protocol). The audio quality will severely degrade. As far as I know, this is the case no matter what headphones or operating system or Bluetooth stack you use.
* To make other people sound better, get better speakers or listen-only headphones (or just don't use the mic on the headphones, as above)
* To make yourself sound better, get a better external mic and put it as close to your mouth as you can, like a wearable lapel mic or a traditional mic on a boom. At least get a unidirectional / cardioid pattern one if nothing else, and try to put it out of line of sound from your keyboard.
* Software noise cancelation can be pretty effective, depending on who implements it. If I remember right, Zoom has this built in, as does Discord. Can't remember about Teams and Meet. Steam does not. There are sometimes third party apps (like Krisp.ai) but not sure about Linux versions.
* If you can hide your own speakers from your mic (ie wear headphones when conferencing) you will usually get better results.
* Remember to switch audio inputs and outputs manually so they use the correct devices. Some apps will inherit OS settings while others will try to pick one on their own, and usually be wrong. Always double check and do a test before the meeting starts.
* Some laptops (MacBooks) have good microphones and speakers built-in. These will typically work well enough in quiet environments but not in crowded rooms (only a mic very close to your mouth can deal with that effectively). Other laptops typically have crap for both, no matter the Dolby etc stickers they may have. It's just empty marketing.
* TLDR just get a good standalone mic and a good pair of headphones and use them for their intended purpose. If you must use Bluetooth, don't use it for audio playback and recording simultaneously. Probably USB mic + Bluetooth headphones is the sensible desktop setup.