The new new microphone

The new new microphone

It is so hard these days to find an item that you truly think is unique and worth having. I would have to say the same about microphones. Too much of my precious time has been used in trying to purchase the proper microphone for speech dictation.

I had two goals in mind that in a sense are perhaps paradoxical. I sought to purchase an adequate microphone that was listed on Nuance’s recommended list. At the same time, I sought to spend as little money as possible. I do not consider the microphone, or headset an integral part of my superior hardware necessities. I consider it simply a tool that should be sufficient to give me accurate readings and nothing more.

I think I might have achieved both. I ultimately purchased a microphone which is an Andrea NC-95 headset. It is not expensive nor does it come with any bells and whistles. It does not have its own mute button nor its own volume control. It is not a USB port microphone, but a regular, run-of-the-mill, soundcard plug-in.

But I think it might be just right. It is not uncomfortable on my head, and I think it is purchased by kids, gamers, as a simple microphone and headset. But it is close to batting a thousand in terms of speech accuracy with Dragon. It is usable, workable, and seems to do the job better than my previous microphone did.

The most important thing to me, and this is paradoxical, is that I did not want the "superior quality" of a USB port microphone. I do not want a mike that did not make use of my mixer and allow me to mix music and voice when necessary. I couldn't use my previous mike for "broadcasting."

But this mike seems to be doing just fine. I just received it and I'm happily trying it. It is doing okay. So now I'm going to try some rapidfire dictation with it.

The impression I am getting is that its accuracy rate is actually quite high. It received six stars -- dragons -- on dragons list. The words come out freely and flows swiftly and I think it actually gets things down quite well.

But you didn't really want to read this far just to hear about some microphone, did you? Well, if you came here to read about the Andrea NC-95, then I need to tell you that I am using it and very satisfied with it. I think the secret of all of this is that you do not need to spend big bucks for a microphone that will be sufficient to use with speech dictation software. The build on this thing is sturdy enough, and the words are fine.

Now, having said that, I'm not so sure I would say or give such a glowing report regarding the headphones. I don't think the sound that I receive, sound quality, music quality etc. is necessarily up to par or similar to the headset that I had which was a USB one.

But as long as the dictation stays accurate and as closely faithful to my dictation, I think this critter is the route to go.

Anyway, “it's only a puppy.”