However one thing I have noticed is mic quality matters... up to a point.
I'm not even talking mic booms and super expensive setups, the difference between some omnidirectional mic on the bottom of a laptop or the side of one of those bluetooth headphones and pretty much any headset with a mic pointed at your actual face is night and day. It doesn't need to be expensive, but it does need to be within reasonable proximity to your mouth, and preferably not over a questionably compressed bluetooth stream.
I find the macbook pro onboard mic to be superior to every headphone mic and every group room mic I have tested and I have tested many. If you have one and you are using headpones made for music do everyone a favor and set your defaults so that it always uses the mac's mic. With many Bluetooth heaphones you also get vastly better sound quality in your ears if the mic is not in use.
I agree with your statement about quality, but everything is good only until you start typing. Everyone on a meeting will hear it as if their ears were inside your laptop. And when you’re talking while typing, oh god
Out of curiosity, I picked up a Konftel Ego portable blutooth speakerphone for some testing. An integrator turned us on to Konftel as a cost effective alternative to polycomm speakerphones, and they were indeed quite good.
I've been very happy with it! Indeed, I started typing without thinking during a meeting, apologized to the group and they said they didn't hear the typing at all. I was shocked because I am in a temporary setup and am using my mechanical keyboard - which I try to avoid during the day for obvious reasons.
Pretty amazing quality. I ended up getting one for my parents to use on their calls and they love it - works with the computer, their cell phones or their house phone. Provantage has 'em for $80 too.
That is definitely true, but I have developed the good habit of not typing while I talk and muting the rest of the time, or at least when I do have to type.
I agree when compared to BT mics. They suck, in general. But compared to a decent (~50€) wired headset, they lose, hands down. You can also find really decent mics in second-hand stores. I got a 900€ mic for 20€ and just had to replace a few components.
Also, there’s nothing more annoying than hearing birds chirping when you’re trying to have a meeting with the volume turned all the way up to hear you talking. Buy a freakin headset.
Same! The macbook speaker is also one of the best I've heard. Sometimes if I'm not expecting a rustling or footsteps, or a quick car beep in the background of a movie, I'll look over assuming it was a real life sound.
That's coming from plugging a bose speaker in to whatever laptop I'm using before.
The machine has it's flaws, but this part is really close to magic for me.
However one thing I have noticed is mic quality matters... up to a point.
I'm not even talking mic booms and super expensive setups, the difference between some omnidirectional mic on the bottom of a laptop or the side of one of those bluetooth headphones and pretty much any headset with a mic pointed at your actual face is night and day. It doesn't need to be expensive, but it does need to be within reasonable proximity to your mouth, and preferably not over a questionably compressed bluetooth stream.