Any good PC USB headsets with microphone?

[heart-of-wessex]

Hello all,

Anyone using any descent headphones with a good microphone?

I purchased a Razer BlackShark some time ago, not exactly cheap at the time, seemed descent sound wise out of the headset but starting to loose it a bit, time to try something else I thought but maybe I could hang onto it, until the point came where I started playing SimSig online recently and decided to try the provided microphone that I haven't used all this time that I've had it. Well it's absolutely awful! Microphone sound quality is dire, and even at full volume it's barely audible, and as I say if you can hear it the quality really isn't there.

So I've decided rather than hang on to this for another year, I'm going to start looking for a replacement now instead, but something decent that is a proper gaming headset with a descent mic, some of these YouTubers seem to have descent quality when they are talking into the headsets, not that I know what headset it is!

Any recommendations? Open to anything, no budget boundaries

James.

 

[Trackman]

I dont know much about these about these things, but its a matter of trial and error with mic's on headphones - I look at Amazon reviews.
Could it be something to do with the soundcard / onboard audio?
Mines loads better with a dedicated sound card.

 

[WillPS]

I dont know much about these about these things, but its a matter of trial and error with mic's on headphones - I look at Amazon reviews.
Could it be something to do with the soundcard / onboard audio?
Mines loads better with a dedicated sound card.

If it's USB, the "sound card" is effectively part of the peripheral, and any on board sound will be bypassed.

 

[najaB]

Well it's absolutely awful! Microphone sound quality is dire, and even at full volume it's barely audible, and as I say if you can hear it the quality really isn't there.

Maybe pointing out the obvious, but are you 100% sure that Windows/SimSig is actually using the headset mic and isn't defaulting to built-in audio on the computer or a webcam mic if you have one selected?

In terms of recommendation, I would say ditch the 'gamer' headsets and go with one that designed for business. I have a Jabra Evolve 75 through work and I find it incredibly comfortable to wear all day both for calls and for listening to music. Nobody has once complained that they had difficulty hearing me and I use it to record training videos and the quality is fine.

 

[Ediswan]

In terms of recommendation, I would say ditch the 'gamer' headsets and go with one that designed for business. I have a Jabra Evolve 75 through work and I find it incredibly comfortable to wear all day both for calls and for listening to music. Nobody has once complained that they had difficulty hearing me and I use it to record training videos and the quality is fine.

+1 for Jabra. In 2020 I bought some for work colleagues to use with Microsoft Teams. No complaints, everybody seemed very happy with them.

 

[Inversnecky]

With the Razer Blackshark, in the Synapse software, increase volume to 100 (think it’s 75 by default) and check two options to make it louder: voice normalisation checkbox, and Mic Boost in the EQ. Increases the volume a fair bit.