Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound during video conferences

Re:Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound dur... by __mharrison__ on Thursday March 27, 2025 @05:10PM (#43498216)

I have a Blue Yeti, an AudioTechnica BPHS1 (headset), a Fifine 688 (cheap Shure SM7B competition), and a Behringer C2 (pencil mic). I have also used "professional equipment" sent from studios for me to record with.

The professional equipment sounds the best, but the audio device alone (sans mic) was $1200.

These days, I use the pencil mic with a Scarlett device. It sounds good enough for my recording needs (I post-process everything regardless). It is out of camera, and pencil mics (or shotgun) are what pros use in camera studios.

If you don't mind having a big mic on camera, the Fifine is a lot of bang for the buck. If you are a brand person, go for the Shure.

A headset is great for minimizing sound when talking with others (say for a podcast interview), but I have yet to find one that is comfortable for using all day (I'm often teaching day-long courses).

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Re:Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound dur... by guappa on Thursday March 27, 2025 @05:52PM (#43498614)

I don't think anyone is going to blow 1 month of their salary to sound better on zoom.

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Re:Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound dur... by spacechild1 on Thursday March 27, 2025 @07:48PM (#43499621)

You can get a decent 2-in 2-out audio interface for 100€ or less. I can recommend Behringer's UMC series: https://www.thomann.de/at/behringer_u_phoria_umc204hd.htm

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Re:Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound dur... by __mharrison__ on Thursday March 27, 2025 @11:21PM (#43501169)

I have the Scarlett audio version. It works fine. However, I played around swapping my mics with the $1200 Sound Devices Pre2, and it just sounds amazing. I'm not sure what is going on inside that box. I haven't been able to justify that purchase.

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Re:Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound dur... by guappa on Friday March 28, 2025 @04:19AM (#43502831)

I actually bought a sound card, different model. But to do recording. I don't bother to plug it for zoom calls :D

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Re:Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound dur... by __mharrison__ on Thursday March 27, 2025 @06:02PM (#43498691)

Are you referring to the $1200 audio device? Yes, that is expensive. It is meant for professional recording.

The average software salary in the US is about $10k a month. Few spend that much on audio equipment.

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Re:Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound dur... by LtWorf on Thursday March 27, 2025 @06:22PM (#43498873)

Why do you presume that software developers are the only ones doing zoom calls?

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Re:Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound dur... by setr on Thursday March 27, 2025 @10:41PM (#43500908)

You’re on a software developer forum

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Re:Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound dur... by guappa on Friday March 28, 2025 @09:15AM (#43505053)

An international forum, there's more countries than USA.

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Re:Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound dur... by setr on Friday March 28, 2025 @03:20PM (#43509047)

nobody suggested anything otherwise

also original post only actually recommends $100 - $200 mics, so this entire subthread has been a bumbling series of utter nonsense

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Re:Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound dur... by yrxuthst on Thursday March 27, 2025 @07:20PM (#43499391)

I use a BPHS1, in my case I found that replacing the ear pads with 3rd party gel pads greatly improved the comfort for long meetings.

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Re:Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound dur... by __mharrison__ on Thursday March 27, 2025 @08:05PM (#43499749)

I replaced my pads with microfiber ones. The pads don't cause me pain, the top of my head hurts after 4 hours or more.

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