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Sound Better on Calls

A $50 mic in a good room beats a $300 mic in a bad one. Biggest impact first.

Fix your room

  1. Close the door.
  2. Face a soft surface: bookshelf, curtains, closet of clothes. Put something soft behind you too.
  3. Add a blanket or hoodie behind your monitor to absorb reflections.
  4. Avoid glass and tile. Smaller rooms beat larger ones.

Move the mic closer

Twice as far means four times more room noise in the signal.

Target distance

6 to 12 inches for a desk mic. 1 to 3 inches for a headset boom. Earbuds handle this automatically.

Do

Angle a desk mic at your chin, not straight at your lips. Cuts plosive pops without losing clarity.

Set your gain

Too low: you sound distant. Too high: you clip on loud syllables. Most people never touch it.

Do

Open system sound settings, talk normally, watch the input meter. Peaks should hit about 70-80%.

Mac: System Settings > Sound > Input.
Windows: Settings > System > Sound > Input.
Drag the input volume slider until normal speech peaks at three-quarters.

Wear headphones

Without headphones, your mic picks up the other person's voice and your speakers create echo. Any headphones fix this. Wired or wireless, earbuds or over-ear.

Bluetooth note: When the mic turns on, Bluetooth switches from high-quality playback (A2DP) to a two-way codec (HFP). Voice quality is fine; music playback sounds compressed. Every Bluetooth device does this.

Mute when not talking

Your background noise adds to everyone else's audio. Typing, side conversations, dogs.

Shortcuts

Zoom: Cmd/Alt+A. Meet: Cmd/Ctrl+D. Teams: Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+M.

Pick the right mic type

Dynamic (e.g., Shure MV7)

Rejects room noise. Forgiving in untreated spaces. Safer default.

Condenser (e.g., Elgato Wave:3)

More detail, more sensitivity. Sounds better in a quiet room, worse in a noisy one.

Unsure? See our picks. Dynamic is the safer bet.

Before your next call

  1. Close the door.
  2. Move the mic within a foot of your face.
  3. Check input level. Peaks at 70-80%.
  4. Put on headphones.
  5. Run the test.