What's the difference between headphones with a mic on a little pole thingy that goes near your mouth and headphones with a mic mounted directly inside the part that goes on your eat?

Submitted by Pyrenees_ t3_10hzrj4 in headphones

I meant ear not eat.

This is an unnecessarily long body text. It does stuff like making automod shut up and being most serenely awesome. It's very interesting and cool. Technoblade was a good youtuber. I ate bread this morning.

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hiker201 t1_j5bkcoo wrote

Replying to Pyrenees_ (#1,429,435)

The separate mic is probably going to be better, but the model matters. My daughter got a pair of Audio-Technica headphones with a mic in the earphones, and she says people can hear her fine.

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SupOrSalad t1_j5bkj4a wrote

Typically a headphone with a boom mic is called a headset. Designed for long use as a communication device. The mic is on the arm so you can move it to a comfortable position and talk clearly.

Headphones (Typically Bluetooth) that have the mic built into the side of the cup are more intended to be used for phone calls or short conferences, but not meant to be a dedicated communication device

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SmartOpinion69 t1_j5bkk8o wrote

mics that have sticks coming out of it to get closer to your mouth tend to have better audio quality than headphones that have an integrated mic that you can't obviously see

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playgroundmx t1_j5cau8n wrote

Headphones with mics on a pole (called a boom mic, and the whole thing is usually called a headset) are usually superior for calls.

The microphone is in the best position to record one’s voice: directly in front of the mouth. You can get very clear speech.

For me, the more important distinction is the mic ONLY records where it’s pointed to. Everything else doesn’t get recorded, at least on good headsets. No one on the other end of the line can tell if you’re in a noisy office or cafe. When I’m wearing my Jabra headset, someone could be talking to me and the mic won’t pick it up.

Headphones with built-in mics in the cups will record almost everything. Better ones have beam-forming to focus on your mouth but it’s not perfect (at least today). Because the mic is further away from your mouth, it (1) can’t record as clear and (2) needs to figure out what needs to be recorded vs ignored. They’re mostly fine in quiet environments, but people will have a hard time listening to you if you’re in a noisy one.

You can compare mic recordings from something “high end” like Sony XM5 vs a basic Razer Kraken headset. It’s a huge difference.

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