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"What is the best desktop microphone for use with Dragon? I'm using a headset now but I'd like to try a high-quality microphone."

Ted,

The Sennheiser MD431 II http://www.knowbrainer.com/NewStore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=221&idcategory=66 shines in regards to noise cancellation in very loud environments and the accuracy is outstanding. The downsides are you have to be 2 to 3 inches away from the microphone capsule during dictation and after you add a USB soundcard, gooseneck, base, XLR cable and windscreen you are over 500.00.

The Philips SpeechMike LFH 3500 http://www.knowbrainer.com/NewStore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=450&idcategory=67 is by far the best handheld microphone on the market easily besting the overpriced Dictaphone Powermic II in noise cancellation, accuracy and technology as mkweiss mentioned. During beta testing we also found it to work wonderfully as a desktop microphone and started adding a little kit to do so.

The most popular Desktop Microphones to use with Dragon Medical or NaturallySpeaking are now the SpeechWare Tablemike line http://www.knowbrainer.com/NewStore/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=66 of desktop microphones. SpeechWare actually designed these for users of speech recognition including technology like automatic gain control and EQ. The TableMikes also have a 20 inch dictation range allowing an end user to not have to hover over the microphone capsule.

Over the years, I have used 3 Philips SpeechMike's. The best thing about them is the programmable buttons, and good mouse functionality in the microphone. The main problem is the fragile cable connected to the microphone, the connection breaks and after a year a $400 microphone is useless. That is why I stopped buying them. Has the cable connection become more sturdy? And how is the performance of their new wireless microphone?

Dictaphone PowerMic II is more sturdy but the mouse functionality is not as good. And can you program scripts to work with the buttons?

SanjeevP,

While I've never heard of Philips SpeechMike microphone cable breaking, they are now modular and have been for the past few years. If the cable breaks, you simply replace the cable and not the entire unit.

The advantage of the Dictaphone PowerMic II is that you don't have to install separate software and the buttons can be programmed to perform any built-in or personal Dragon Medical command. The disadvantage of the microphone is the stick mouse and the price. Programming is also a little bit more limited. This is why I prefer the Philips SpeechMike Premium LFH-3500.

Tom,

What about the Grundig Digta Sonic Mic II -- Significantly cheaper than Phillips and Dictaphone, programmable, and excellent accuracy (w very slight less noise cancellation) AND about 40% less expensive???

James Pace Clayton, M.D.
US Virgin Islands

Dr. Clayton,

The Grundig Digta SonicMic II ~ http://www.knowbrainer.com/NewStore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=126&idcategory=49 is also an excellent choice and as you noted, costs quite a bit less. It even doubles as a desktop microphone and includes a weighted stand. We have a lot of customers using this microphone.

But tech support at Philips said that they cannot replace cable, and the SpeechMike microphone is basically useless. Do you repair those microphones?

Does Grundig Digta SonicMic II have mouse functionality?

SanjeevP,


The older SpeechMikes didn't have replaceable cables. It's the SpeechMike Premium LFH 3500 and 3510 models(their most recent models)that have this ability. I know this for certain because we remove the cables from every unit and plug the microphones into a PC with a stationary cable to make sure every unit has the most recent firmware before me ship them to our clients. After the firmware update we plug the cables back into the microphones. We also send our own binded manual with every 3500 and 3510.

The Grundig Digta SonicMic II features ?Track Point? mouse control and mouse buttons as well as a Mouse pointer speed thats individually adjustable.

Tom,

That was good advice on SpeechMike. Thanks you.

The new LFH 3500 SpeechMike has pluggable cable so that is a lot better. On your advice I purchased it from you and the speech recognition is just excellent!

SpeechMike software has gotten worse. Very buggy and I ad to keep quitting and restarting. The command provided by Lanus has made it a little easier. So far, I have not been able to have the buttons programmed. But speech recognition is superb and track ball functionality is decent.

How to Program The Buttons


1. If the Philips Device Control Center isn?t already open, launch it by double mouse clicking the Philips Device Control Center shortcut on your desktop. If you would like the Control Center to launch when you boot Windows, you might want to add a shortcut to the Device Control to your Windows Startup folder. The 1st time you launch the Philips Device Control Center you will see the following. You could actually read the introductions but you can optionally get right to it by clicking the Application control tab. Note that this SpeechMike model includes a gyroscope so if you lay it down on a flat surface, you will see the red circled Last event box with the words Laid down which means that your microphone is muted.

2. You can optionally use the Add or Remove buttons to add or remove application-specific commands but to keep it simple, the following step-by-step will show you how to create a global command. You can record specific commands to do one thing when you press the button and another when you release the button. A good example of this combination is the default Rewind button which moves the cursor backward (while you hold down the button) and turns the microphone off and stops when you release the button. For the sake of simplicity, we will program a macro into the Press button since this is the most common programming you will likely utilize.

3. Scroll down to Function key 1 and click the 1st ? button. Although it isn?t necessary to type a name for your command, we recommend filling in the name in case you forget. For this particular example, we?re going to reference a NaturallySpeaking command which moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph. Choose a name like ?move to end of paragraph? and click the Add.

4. Click Dragon NaturallySpeaking command followed by clicking Next. Click the Down arrow and choose User command.

5. Type the name of the command into the Command text box and note that the box is case-sensitive. You can type the name of any existing command you wish to deploy; including personal commands, NaturallySpeaking commands and even third-party commands such as the KnowBrainer 2012 Continue command which is the same as the NaturallySpeaking end of paragraph command. If you are using KnowBrainer 2012 type Continue but if not, type end of paragraph and click Finish. Click OK to complete the command.

6. The following is the most important part. Your new command will not work unless you click the Apply button so please do so now. If you go back to step #4 you will see options on creating various other commands which are self-explanatory.

SanjeevP,

The post above may not do any good as it's covered in our SpeechMike manual that we ship with every microphone. There are also other board members using the SpeechMike LFH 3500 who may weigh in on the topic.