When HN users recommended it
1 HN user recommended this in 2022, in one comment.
20072026
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
1 HN user recommended this in 2022, in one comment.
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
Last weekend I was talking with a neighbor's friend about headsets and he let me try out his AfterShokz OpenComm. These are bone conduction headphones with a swivel microphone. He said he liked listening to music on them. I didn't like the audio quality for music, but it seemed like it would be plenty good for voice conferencing. What I wanted to know, though, was the microphone quality.
So I found them on Amazon and there are some video reviews!
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B09CGYBZVG/
One of the video reviews is titled "Love the battery life and microphone abilities". I thought, "great, I will get to hear what the microphone sounds like."
No such luck. The video reviewer is some doofus who wears an orange flame wig - I guess it's his trademark schtick? - and at no point does he actually demonstrate the microphone quality. He did talk a lot about how good the microphone is - without letting me actually hear it - and also commented on how the headset gets caught in his wig.
Dude! Why would I care about that?
So I did a search for "opencomm microphone quality" and landed on this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRmTMpZVoVc
Now this is what I was looking for. Not only does he let you hear the microphone, but he switches back and forth between the high-quality camera mic and the OpenComm mic, with a supertitle showing which you are listening to. And they throw in noise sources like a blender and a fan so you can check out the noise cancellation. Not a worry for me, I have a quiet private office, but gosh, I love this kind of demo.
So naturally I ordered from them instead of Amazon. And I did something I never do: I bought their extended warranty. I take good care of my equipment, and on a $150-$200 purchase, I'd rather just take the minor risk of having to buy a new one. But I paid for the extended warranty just as a way to thank them for providing such an informative video review.
If you make video reviews and want to see the difference between a ridiculously bad one and a great one, compare the two above.