Looking for a desktop mic for chatting/Skype etc.

honovere

Hi,

I am using my PC with a TV in the living room. That means I am sitting about 2-3m away from both. Now I am looking for a microphon that I can put next to the TV for chatting and voip. I tried a desktop mic from the local electronics store but that was useless as it couldn't really pic up anything further away then half a metre without huge distortions.

Can someone recommend me a suitable mic? Hopefully not to pricey? 50 would be my preferred upper limit.

Thanks in advance.

JAEF

Anything you put next to the TV is that can pick up your voice from 2-3m away is going to pick up every sound the TV is putting out, making it useless. Depending on what your setup looks like you're going to want maybe a long distance corded clip-on mic, headset or something wireless.

Edit: Or a long distance USB hub would open up more options

hsu

Get a USB mic meant for podcasting, from a real audio company, like Samson (samsontech.com) or Blue (bluemic.com). They'll easily pick up sound from 2m away; we use Samson C03U mics in our conference rooms at work, and they pick everything.

You want the USB mics, because they have power and a dedicated analog to digital converter. 3.5mm mics have crap for power and use your motherboard's crappy A/D converter. Pros use XLR mics, but those require additional equipment to use with computers.

Given your budget (which is very low), I would suggest the Samson Q1U or the Blue Snowball USB; both are about $50.