6 ms·

"you want to hear from your AirPods but be heard from your internal microphone" I wish all people would know this, I have CTO coaching sessions and when people

"you want to hear from your AirPods but be heard from your internal microphone" I wish all people would know this, I have CTO coaching sessions and when people attend with AirPods microphones, 60minutes is such a drain because of the bad mic quality of AirPods - and people seem not to realize this.

dzhiurgis 2y ago
This. It drains your airpods less too.
adastra22 2y ago
Internal microphone being what? The laptop or the phone? These have absolute shit input when sitting relatively far away on the desk or pocket. In my own experience, AirPods offer the absolute best microphones for zoom calls, other than professional-level equipment.
- vouaobrasil 2y ago
  Or a decent quality but entry-level USB mic, which is certainly not considered "professional-level" by any standard.
  - adastra22 2y ago
    I was implicitly comparing within the same form factor...
- KingOfCoders 2y ago
  "sitting relatively far away on the desk or pocket." So it seems to be primarily about your convenience vs. the other persons fatigue. We need an Usenet Etiquette for Zoom calls. Just google for "airpods terrible microphone" MacBooks and iPhones have much better microphones than AirPods.
- tecleandor 2y ago
  Well "internal microphone" would be any other that's not the one of the Bluetooth headset you're using in the call. You can use high quality codecs with Bluetooth to listen, but when you use Bluetooth headset as a microphone, it switches to the "headset profile", that has greatly reduced bandwidth and a simpler codec, hence reducing the quality of sound in both directions. You can very clearly hear the bandwidth difference if you connect to a Zoom call using your Bluetooth headset both for listening and as a microphone, and then switching the microphone to the one in your laptop while someone is talking. I guess that any other software will work, but it's the one I use in the office. I usually have a high quality microphone on my desk (an AT2020, but you don't need to go that far, I already had it) and use my headset just for listening. But it might not work if you have to talk away from your desk. I've heard that some people use headsets that aren't bluetooth, like the Jabra or Plantronics that are made for call centers, where you connect the headset base directly to the laptop. They seem to have also an incredible connection range, but they are very pricey so I haven't bought one for testing. Edit: The "non Bluetooth" headsets I was talking about use the DECT standard. But make sure you get one that has super-wideband support, or you'll have the same mic quality problem. Not the range problem, as it seems like you can even leave your house and keep talking. But they're typically expensive, like USD250-450
  - Nullabillity 2y ago
    > I've heard that some people use headsets that aren't bluetooth, like the Jabra or Plantronics that are made for call centers, where you connect the headset base directly to the laptop. They seem to have also an incredible connection range, but they are very pricey so I haven't bought one for testing. Just get a cheap gaming headset. Pretty much all wireless gaming headsets also have perfectly fine quality for two-way communication, and you can get completely reasonable ones for ~$50-$100. Remember, the primary use case for these is to mix gameplay, music, and voice calls while also keeping the latency very low. Bluetooth would never fly in that world, and it's bizarre that it's tolerated elsewhere.
    - tecleandor 2y ago
      All wireless gaming headsets that I've seen are Bluetooth. What I've seen from some of them (or even some headsets that aren't "gaming") is "Gaming Mode", that usually means that they either use a low latency codec like aptX Low Latency, or reduce the buffers in the connection or something like that. That's also useful to reduce latency when watching videos or TV. But once you switch to headset mode, you're back to the low quality mode every Bluetooth headset uses. Meanwhile, as I cannot justify (to myself) the $350 expense, I'm using a $65 1More Sonoflow headset that works great for me and also have aptX codecs.
meeech 2y ago
Are you the one doing the coaching? Wouldn't this be part of coaching them?
- KingOfCoders 2y ago
  Yes. It is a minor part of coaching, like sending out good microphones, headphones and cameras if needed to all devs to minimize zoom fatigue. (I once nearly was fired as CTO when I bought QC headphones for everyone in an open-plan office because of the money, which compared to our other IT expenses in my budget was a blip)
sjnair96 2y ago
Usually, if I feel this, it means I have to get my AirPods cleaned (do it at the store, it's worth it). I have, subjectively, always felt that clean AirPods blow the Mac mic out of the water.
- sflefties 2y ago
  [dead]
- zaptrem 2y ago
  When using two way Bluetooth the bitrate drops sharply. No amount of cleaning can solve this.

dzhiurgis 2y ago

This. It drains your airpods less too.

adastra22 2y ago

Internal microphone being what? The laptop or the phone? These have absolute shit input when sitting relatively far away on the desk or pocket. In my own experience, AirPods offer the absolute best microphones for zoom calls, other than professional-level equipment.

vouaobrasil 2y ago
Or a decent quality but entry-level USB mic, which is certainly not considered "professional-level" by any standard.
- adastra22 2y ago
  I was implicitly comparing within the same form factor...
KingOfCoders 2y ago
"sitting relatively far away on the desk or pocket." So it seems to be primarily about your convenience vs. the other persons fatigue. We need an Usenet Etiquette for Zoom calls. Just google for "airpods terrible microphone" MacBooks and iPhones have much better microphones than AirPods.
tecleandor 2y ago
Well "internal microphone" would be any other that's not the one of the Bluetooth headset you're using in the call. You can use high quality codecs with Bluetooth to listen, but when you use Bluetooth headset as a microphone, it switches to the "headset profile", that has greatly reduced bandwidth and a simpler codec, hence reducing the quality of sound in both directions. You can very clearly hear the bandwidth difference if you connect to a Zoom call using your Bluetooth headset both for listening and as a microphone, and then switching the microphone to the one in your laptop while someone is talking. I guess that any other software will work, but it's the one I use in the office. I usually have a high quality microphone on my desk (an AT2020, but you don't need to go that far, I already had it) and use my headset just for listening. But it might not work if you have to talk away from your desk. I've heard that some people use headsets that aren't bluetooth, like the Jabra or Plantronics that are made for call centers, where you connect the headset base directly to the laptop. They seem to have also an incredible connection range, but they are very pricey so I haven't bought one for testing. Edit: The "non Bluetooth" headsets I was talking about use the DECT standard. But make sure you get one that has super-wideband support, or you'll have the same mic quality problem. Not the range problem, as it seems like you can even leave your house and keep talking. But they're typically expensive, like USD250-450
- Nullabillity 2y ago
  > I've heard that some people use headsets that aren't bluetooth, like the Jabra or Plantronics that are made for call centers, where you connect the headset base directly to the laptop. They seem to have also an incredible connection range, but they are very pricey so I haven't bought one for testing. Just get a cheap gaming headset. Pretty much all wireless gaming headsets also have perfectly fine quality for two-way communication, and you can get completely reasonable ones for ~$50-$100. Remember, the primary use case for these is to mix gameplay, music, and voice calls while also keeping the latency very low. Bluetooth would never fly in that world, and it's bizarre that it's tolerated elsewhere.
  - tecleandor 2y ago
    All wireless gaming headsets that I've seen are Bluetooth. What I've seen from some of them (or even some headsets that aren't "gaming") is "Gaming Mode", that usually means that they either use a low latency codec like aptX Low Latency, or reduce the buffers in the connection or something like that. That's also useful to reduce latency when watching videos or TV. But once you switch to headset mode, you're back to the low quality mode every Bluetooth headset uses. Meanwhile, as I cannot justify (to myself) the $350 expense, I'm using a $65 1More Sonoflow headset that works great for me and also have aptX codecs.

meeech 2y ago

Are you the one doing the coaching? Wouldn't this be part of coaching them?

KingOfCoders 2y ago
Yes. It is a minor part of coaching, like sending out good microphones, headphones and cameras if needed to all devs to minimize zoom fatigue. (I once nearly was fired as CTO when I bought QC headphones for everyone in an open-plan office because of the money, which compared to our other IT expenses in my budget was a blip)

sjnair96 2y ago

Usually, if I feel this, it means I have to get my AirPods cleaned (do it at the store, it's worth it). I have, subjectively, always felt that clean AirPods blow the Mac mic out of the water.

sflefties 2y ago
[dead]
zaptrem 2y ago
When using two way Bluetooth the bitrate drops sharply. No amount of cleaning can solve this.