Three Teleconferencing Mics Comparison

Last week I finished setting up my RØDE NT-USB Mini for remote work from home. Now it is out of my way and attached to a boom arm. I added a shock mount to isolate it from the mechanically transferred desk noise and wrapped it in an acoustic foam windscreen to further soften those plosives. I am pretty happy with how it all turned out!

Having said that, I also wanted to experiment and see / hear how my new mic setup compares to more traditional arrangements that I see my co-workers and friends use for teleconferencing. This is what I want to share in this post.

You can scroll down and start listening, but continue reading if you are interested in the details. I compare built-in laptop mics, in my case, MacBook Pro 15-inch 2019 model, against Bose's wired in-ear headphones from 2015. Of course, I could not omit the newest RØDE NT-USB Mini from the mix.

My wife (life partner and my love!) graciously agreed to read a paragraph from Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" while I recorded all three mics simultaneously using Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack. I pulled in the three recordings to REAPER and mastered the track below. I have left the audio intact and only arranged the segments along the timeline.

Here it is. Contents as follows:

  • 00:00 Bose SoundSport In-Ear Headphones for Apple devices

  • 00:25 MacBook Pro 2019 Built-in Mic

  • 00:49 RØDE NT-USB Mini

  • 01:14 Bose SoundSport In-Ear Headphones for Apple devices

  • 01:21 MacBook Pro 2019 Built-in Mic

  • 01:30 RØDE NT-USB Mini

I recommend listening with headphones.

Let me know in the comments below what you think!

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