In the brave new world of social distancing and work from home we're all doing a lot of conference calls. The mic in my work computer isn't bad, but not great even for me. We also use this system for Saturday night cards games with other families when we have thee or four people from our end. the built in mic is just too directional and not good enough for a situation like that. Does anyone have a recommendation for a sub $30 mic that will work?
Thanks
If you're willing to go up to about $50 the Blue Snowball iCE is is really nice for that kind of thing. I've used mine a bunch of times as a conference mic and to record videos for work.
I haven't had real good luck with freestanding microphones below that.
It is a cardioid mic however so it relies on the participants being in front of or to the sides of it.
In reply to The0retical (Forum Supporter) :
THX, Amazon seem to have a knock off for $30. I wonder if that would work
Separate from a headset?
I was going to just say grab the lower-end logitech headset, but apparently many have the same idea as they are sold out and/or expensive now.
Personally I *hate* conferencing without a headset.
I've been using a $6 lapel mic from Amazon but that won't work for your group calls.
I have the next version up for gaming and it's been pretty great the last 2 years.
I still use old iphone earbuds with my computer unless I am on a longer call and put the real headset on. Seems to work fine.
Waaaay over your budget, but I love my Jabra 510.
I don't want a headset. No need and I'm not keen. Also I want something that can pick up 3-4 people sat around a table when we're playing cards and chatting with family and friends.
Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) said:I still use old iphone earbuds with my computer unless I am on a longer call and put the real headset on. Seems to work fine.
I would like to stab every single person who does this at work. The mic on those suuuuuuuccks and when combined with conf. call compression it means the rest of us only pick up every other word.
Obviously I'm exaggerating. If its works for you, great :)
I can't believe I'm even suggesting this, but do you have any of that Amazon/Apple smart home/constant spying bullE36 M3 in your house already?
Would a smart speaker like a Echo Dot work?
In reply to RevRico :
No, hell no. Eff no, no effing way. berkeley those things. No spys in my house.
In reply to Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) :
Perhaps you can just use the mic from one of those things. I was going to maybe suggest finding an old conference phone and use just the mic out of one.
Certainly a lot of time involved in something like that, not just order it and plug it in solution.
Bugger. so yesterday the Blue Snowball iCE was around $50 on Amazon. That was more than I wanted to spend, but I decided eff it, I'll just spend the $50. I go back this morning to order it and they are now $77.
Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:Bugger. so yesterday the Blue Snowball iCE was around $50 on Amazon. That was more than I wanted to spend, but I decided eff it, I'll just spend the $50. I go back this morning to order it and they are now $77.
It's those spies. But they aren't in the alexa device, they are in your computer.
Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to RevRico :
No, hell no. Eff no, no effing way. berkeley those things. No spys in my house.
Aside from all the smartphones. 
But no, I get it, and we've talked about this before. I'm with you.
But I don't get your anti-headset agenda. Those things are the ONLY way to go on conference calls.
Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:Bugger. so yesterday the Blue Snowball iCE was around $50 on Amazon. That was more than I wanted to spend, but I decided eff it, I'll just spend the $50. I go back this morning to order it and they are now $77.
They're $50 at Best Buy order it to store then curbside pick up to skirt shipping.
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