DevicedialWhich headset or microphone is actually the quieter one?
Both of them work. The one worth keeping is the one whose room you can hear least.
One gear check a month
MonthlyOne thing a month worth measuring before it fails properly โ a mic that reset itself, a stick that drifts, a switch sending two clicks. Two sentences and the test.
Free to use โ Pro is for keeping it
This tool, like every other one here, is free and needs no account. A free account keeps three setups and three email alerts. Pro takes the ads off every site we run and lifts that to 200 setups and 50 alerts, adds a public page for any result and lets you embed the tool without our badge.
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How do I compare two microphones properly?
The Devicedial headset and mic comparison puts each device on its own row with the peak level and the background noise you measured, and works out the gap between them in decibels. That gap is what decides which microphone is better, and it is the figure a specification sheet never gives you, because it belongs to the microphone and your room together rather than to the hardware alone.
Both numbers come from one test. Run the mic test with each device selected in turn: speak at your normal distance for the peak, then stay silent for a few seconds for the background noise. The three example devices come out at 49.0, 32.0 and 57.0 dB, which is the usual shape of a comparison โ the laptop’s built-in array is not quiet, it is simply further away and pointed at the room. Measure all of them in the same room within a few minutes or you are comparing afternoons.
What the gap between your voice and the room sounds like
The separation is the peak minus the background noise. These bands follow from the level bands the mic test already uses rather than from any published standard.
| Separation | What you hear | What it means for the device |
|---|---|---|
| 50 dB or more | Silence between sentences | The room is not reaching the microphone at all |
| 40 to 50 dB | Comfortable on any call | Noise suppression has nothing left to do |
| 30 to 40 dB | Room audible in the pauses | Usable, and the first thing to improve is distance |
| 20 to 30 dB | Suppression pumps between words | Either too far away, or a room too live for it |
| Under 20 dB | Your voice sits inside the noise | Wrong device selected, or a fan in front of it |
A gap is a property of the microphone and the room together, not of the microphone alone. Measure every device in the same room, at the same distance, within the same few minutes, or you are ranking your afternoon rather than your gear.
Getting the two numbers for each device
Open the mic test, select the first device as your system default, and read the peak while you talk at the distance you actually use. Then stop talking and let it settle: that lower figure is the background noise. Switch the default input to the next device, reload, and do the same. The mic test reports both, and the guide to a microphone that is too quiet covers what to do when the peak is low before you blame the hardware.
What the gap does not tell you
Tone, echo and comfort. A microphone with a wide gap can still sound boxy in a bare room, and that is the room rather than the device โ the echo test plays five seconds back so you hear what everyone else hears. The output side of a headset is a separate question again, answered by the headphone test for channels and phase, and the speaker test if you are choosing between speakers instead.
Once you have picked one, run its numbers into the new machine test plan as a baseline, or straight into the stream check sheet if it is going live this week.
Frequently asked questions
Should noise suppression be on or off while I measure?
Off, and the mic test has a checkbox for exactly that. Browsers apply echo cancellation, noise suppression and automatic gain control to a microphone stream by default, and all three change the two numbers you are trying to compare: suppression pulls the background down, gain control drags a quiet input up. With processing on you are comparing algorithms, which are the same on every device you own. With it off you are comparing microphones.
My expensive condenser has a worse gap than a cheap headset. Is it broken?
Almost certainly not โ it is doing its job in a room that does not deserve it. A headset microphone sits two centimetres from your mouth, so your voice arrives enormously louder than anything else, while a condenser on a stand is far enough away that the room competes. The comparison is still telling the truth: for calls in that room, the headset is the better microphone. Move the condenser closer and measure again, and the ranking usually reverses.
Why not just listen to a recording of each one?
Because listening ranks tone and this ranks noise, and they are different questions. A recording tells you which device sounds warmer, which is a matter of taste and can be argued about forever. The gap tells you how far your voice sits above the room, which is what decides whether the other end strains to hear you and whether suppression starts chewing the beginnings of your words. Use the echo test for the part your ears judge better than a number.
How the test works
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