Headset microphones are a speech recognition staple for most of us because of their high accuracy, affordability and noise cancellation. However headsets can be somewhat uncomfortable to wear over a long period of time and a bit of a hassle for those who have to frequently put them on and off. There's also the time-consuming burden of lining up the microphone element 2 to 3 fingers width away from the corner of your mouth.
The advantage of handheld microphones is that they typically include programmable buttons and mouse controls but they are a bit pricey, tend to be a little weak on noise cancellation and they completely tie up one hand.
Wireless headset microphones have the obvious advantage of being wireless, are often very accurate and noise canceling. However they have the same Achilles' heel as all headset microphones in that you have to put them on and off, line up the microphone element, they're often uncomfortable, pricey and you have the additional burden of having to change the battery once or twice a day.
Desktop microphones are not ideally portable (because of their size), need to be used in a moderately quiet environment (open-door office) and are not wireless but on the upside, they are affordable, you don't have to continually take your headset on and off, position the microphone element or deal with any discomfort because nothing is more comfortable than a microphone you don't have to wear or put on. TableMikes are also great for those with physical limitations. We can testify that once you try a TableMike, it's hard to go back to anything else. We've been testing TableMikes for the past 3 months and as much as we love our wireless Airline 77, we have switched to a TableMike because you just can't beat the comfort and we typically dictate within 3 feet of our computer monitors. We suspect that many of you, after viewing our latest test results, may wind up changing your mind about handheld and headset microphones. Our
Battle of the TableMikes Review includes a round up of the 5 best desktop microphones pitted against each other and the winner was a surprise to all 8 microphone testers because it wound up being one of the most affordable choices.
