Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: LThunderpocket on February 20, 2011, 06:19:14 PM
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any1 know of a mic i can use.preferably around 20 bucks.i got a card for best buy and figured id get1
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I have a Logitec 15$ mic for about a year now
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cool.is it just a logitec or a specific one
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cool.is it just a logitec or a specific one
Logitec something, i don't remember it's exact name, bit it's a great mic for the price
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This one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836111601
You don't have to buy it from Newegg, but that's a real good mic IMO for voice coms on a computer. I personally don't like headset mics, too hard to keep the volume and quality consistent.
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IMO I would put some money into a mic, I got a USB powered mic for around $50. It has lasted me a while compared to cheap mics.
Quality>Quantity
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I got a Logitech clear-chat mike for $50 and I have had it for 4 years and it works great.
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I have one I bought from a bargain store two years ago for $1.95 and its still going.
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I have a cheapo mic works just fine.
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I use the cheapest head set/boom mic that Wal-Mart sells. No complaints.
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http://www.philips.co.uk/c/notebook-and-ipad-accessoires/shm3300_00/prd/ (http://www.philips.co.uk/c/notebook-and-ipad-accessoires/shm3300_00/prd/)
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Most mics last about four to eight months because they just aren't rugged enough. Most USB setups are about useless because of the additional load (transitioning load) and the anomalies they create in PC audio. So if you want to spend $20 on a mic you can expect to have a short-lived setup and/or lackluster performance. I have never seen and you probably will never find a good solution through WalMart/Target/Best Buy that will work well and survive any type of use. They are just too flimsy and weak to survive contact with a human.
I went out and bought Heil Proset Media Pro headsets that come with a microphone (dynamic). The headset is super high quality (we are talking broadcast/HAM level) and better yet if anything goes wrong Heil also services their products. I am a pretty big guy and the headset is much more comfortable than the designs from Asia. But at $109 (currently $106 through the dxstore.com but $229 in UK) its not for everyone. I use the headset for AH and the mic for some Skype calls (or the PR-40 below) but for receiving vox the Heil headset is top notch. I tried 3D headsets for 3D stereo location of GVs and they failed to locate the precise position. So for environmental sounds I use 5.1 speakers and vox received with this headset.
The best USB mic solution that I know of is about $229 but thats also a ten year warrantied item (Rode Podcaster). This is still a midrange item but probably not for a weekend user.
Personally I go for the Heil PR-40 through a Phonic Firefly 302 Plus firewire interface. Its about double the price of the Rode Podcaster with the interface.
If someone cant hear your vox through any one of these devices... its not the mic.
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http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=logitech+clearchat+premium&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=3096184212181324365&ei=B_lhTfW9OY-0sAPoj8jdCA&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CEAQ8wIwAg#
I paid 20$ for the last one at a local store, they go for like $15 online.. I've gone thru about 4 of em in 5 years. mic is good enough for aces high, the headphones are good enough to hear anything also.
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2 euro Headset ,I dont cry much when I smash it down I have some stored
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You're better off not using a USB mic if your computer has a regular 3.5mm microphone jack. I hate headsets and went through 2 cheapo SYBA mics that gave decent sound but the connections went bad after 6 months or so. I'm using a Logitech 980463-0403 now that cost about $10 at Newegg, it seems to be okay.
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I had a cheap logitech - was great for the money. now have a sennheisser PC161 headset (also good value) and squaddies report mic is very clear, they sound great too :aok
avoid USB.
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You could always check out Best Buy online. Just a thought :devil
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp;jsessionid=0D89B277EDA254D378E6C4DE33048EF9.bbolsp-app01-32?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=8484445192770770492&id=pcat17071&type=page&st=computer+mic&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960
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Turtle Beach mics are great
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A lot of people just spoke out against USB mics, and Chalenge (naturally) suggested a very expensive mic. So I want to relate a counter example, since my experience with my USB mic has been flawless.
I just checked my Newegg history and I bought this mic (http://www.logitech.com/en-us/webcam-communications/microphones/devices/221) on July 18th 2006 from Newegg for $18.99, and the exact same item is still available from Newegg for $1 more, and I'm sure you can find it elsewhere, including retail stores, if you want.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836111601 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836111601)
That's nearly 5 years, and its been flawless that entire time. The only time I've had any trouble was when I was an idiot and plugged in the USB cable loosely, or I didn't have the game or Windows configured to use the mic instead of the mic jack on my sound card.
Its not a headset mic though. If you don't want or can't use a desktop mic, don't buy this. Otherwise I highly recommend it. Its not going to fail on you in less than a year if your experience is remotely similar to mine, as I've had mine for 4.5 years now, and its showing no signs of being anything other than just as good as the day I took it out of the box.
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NoX audio has a great selection of headsets http://www.nox-audio.com/
I bought mine and they work great and very comfortable.
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I really like the Koss CS-100. Excellent sound and voice quality in my opinion -- and costs about $15. I've used these for many years.
http://www.amazon.com/Koss-Speech-Recognition-Computer-Headset/dp/B00005ML7Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1298339363&sr=8-1
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A lot of people just spoke out against USB mics, and Chalenge (naturally) suggested a very expensive mic. So I want to relate a counter example, since my experience with my USB mic has been flawless.
Sorry. I have one of these mics. The sound quality is terrible to poor at best. If you want a mic that will irritate friends and foe alike those will fill that slot. Directivity is less than the traverse area of a trackir... much less... which means if you move relative to the mic you will be muffled and your distance from the mic can never be great. Sound quality is an issue that is not easily overcome and sure you only want the range of your voice to be picked up (I guess) if all you do is use vox in AH.
This is not an issue of dollars spent for me. To me I want quality for my money and I want a mic (when I buy a mic) that will fulfill every need I have for a mic. Logitech isnt going to do it. In fact I will go further and say that I just dont like it when cheap mics get used in the game because it degrades the experience for everyone. When you hear (on vox) "I see mumph drfh deriph meriph..." and you have to ask for three repeats... well the purpose of vox isnt to use up extra time but to beat the time required to use the text buffer instead. You dont have to have a mic that can pick up the sound of hair being combed or cheese being sliced (like the PR-40) but if you do want an excellent voice mic for something else and AH too at least you know what works and what will not.
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Sorry. I have one of these mics. The sound quality is terrible to poor at best. If you want a mic that will irritate friends and foe alike those will fill that slot. Directivity is less than the traverse area of a trackir... much less... which means if you move relative to the mic you will be muffled and your distance from the mic can never be great.
Then you got a dud, or I'm spectacularly lucky. The mic I linked is perfectly fine for game-com use. I bought two of these for my friends for when I was playing DDO with them (they hooked me up with in-game currency, so I returned the favor with a RL mic), and I got annoyed that they didn't have mics, and they were fine on their computers as well. In fact I think they're much better than what most people use.
Edit: Here... I recorded something for you guys to make up your own mind. http://www.mediafire.com/file/e47w6f77azqa5fo/Boildown-Chalenge-Challenge.wav (http://www.mediafire.com/file/e47w6f77azqa5fo/Boildown-Chalenge-Challenge.wav)
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Mediafire... security issues... Get 4shared.
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Imaginary security issues as far as I can tell. If there ever were issues, they are ancient history and no longer a concern.
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Failure of imagination. Either put it on 4shared or forget it.
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,307102.msg3959054.html#msg3959054
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Failure of imagination. Either put it on 4shared or forget it.
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,307102.msg3959054.html#msg3959054
I'm well aware of Skuzzy's opinion, from a time I posted my DXDiag when I made a thread about being unable to view one of my films in the film viewer (apparently it was a cloud bug), I had to email it to him. While I respect Skuzzy's opinion and knowledge in general, he regularly seems to have irrational bias against certain things that I find and use just fine. I certainly will never take his every opinion as the bottom line answer on everything.
Besides, its everyone else that should listen to it, I already know your opinion.
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No its not irrational opinions by Skuzzy. That website tends to load malware on visitors unawares which is why it is banned on all of my systems.
Having said what you just did anyone that takes your advice on anything is pretty much taking a risk. My opinion... not Skuzzys.
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No its not irrational opinions by Skuzzy. That website tends to load malware on visitors unawares which is why it is banned on all of my systems.
Having said what you just did anyone that takes your advice on anything is pretty much taking a risk. My opinion... not Skuzzys.
Whatever man. I don't make blanket statements about you when we have a difference of opinion. And I can't find any evidence that Mediafire loads malware on people, more likely that someone uploaded something with malware on it, which isn't Mediafire's fault, and is just as likely to happen with any other file storage site on the internet.
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Really? Thats why my security alerts go nuts whenever I (used to) try to download anything. ALERT! Your system has been compromised! Click here to scan for problems now!
Perhaps your right. Now that I dont trust you (for instance) I wont download anything you post no matter what site you use.
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Gotta agree with Challenge on this one. :rock Mediafire is verboten on our Gov computers and blocked...popups & malware just itching to worm it's way in.
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I also need to point out that recording offline with any mic is not the same as using vox in AH online. Not even close.
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I also need to point out that recording offline with any mic is not the same as using vox in AH online. Not even close.
This is a good point. The vox in AH is compressed heavily, which means no matter how high quality your mic is, its going to sound pretty much the same (i.e. crappy) for Aces High purposes. (Though with the latest version notes, there's some indication that Hitech may be adding a higher quality option in the future.) IMO, if your concern is AH/Vent/Teamspeak, there's absolutely no reason to spend for an expensive mic. You want one that will be "good enough" in fidelity, and won't break on you. The Logitech USB mic I quoted in my previous posts both meets both those requirements in spades and also costs ~$20, as requested by the O.P.
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Wrong again. The point is that certain types of audio controllers are more attune to proper function in AH. If you have a cheap mic in use with a cheap audio card you dont stand a chance. If however you have a high quality mic in use with a high quality audio card you will enjoy much better performance. For instance... if you have a cheap $15 mic and your audio card is the usb type (fob at the end of the mic) then the usb device is working double duty filtering the junk off your mic signal plus adding overhead to the CPU (which is actually doing the work) where all the processing is executed. The fastest and cleanest device is a mic powered by phantom power and delivered to your system through the lowest latency possible (currently firewire) and processed on an audio card that processes the audio on its own physical device as well as delivering 3D positional data without any external processing at all. In other words a condenser mic through a firewire device and processed on a top end X-Fi. Any other solution is inferior simply because it requires more internal processing from your system and with AH you cannot afford that.
And just to be completely intellectually honest... any *.wav file can be filtered and cleaned up by utilities external to your audio device and mic... so posting a "clean" *.wav file is poor proof.
A cheap mic used through the same type of device will also deliver better performance than a USB type system if thats what you really want. Cheaper mics tend to be less tolerant of things like moisture and suffer from greater directivity (reduced traverse of reception).
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I use the cheapest head set/boom mic that Wal-Mart sells. No complaints.
:lol Me too. I think it cost me around $16.00. Worked good until my pups chewed the ear pieces off...
Coogan
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:lol Me too. I think it cost me around $16.00. Worked good until my pups chewed the ear pieces off...
Coogan
Me three, usb headset/mic and it's working flawlessly. Framerates are good, k/d average but that's not the fault of the mic!