My girlfriend and I will soon be living together, and we both regularly play games while chatting with friends. Since our apartment does not have space for separate computer areas, we will be using our PCs in the same room. I currently use an old Razer Carcharias headset, which is extremely comfortable, but its microphone picks up so much background sound that having both of us in the same voice chat is difficult, even with built-in noise suppression. Comfort and reducing room noise are more important to me than sound quality, price, or whether the connection is wired or wireless. I am willing to pay for a setup that genuinely works. Would you recommend a particular headset, or would separate headphones and a desktop microphone be a better solution?
4 Answers
A standalone USB dynamic microphone is probably the best hardware solution. A reasonably priced model such as the Fifine AM8 can reject more sound from the sides and rear than most headset microphones, while letting you keep using your current headset or switch to any headphones you like. A close microphone position and a boom or tabletop stand will help a lot too.
If you have a compatible Nvidia graphics card, Nvidia Broadcast can do a surprisingly good job removing keyboard noise and another person speaking nearby. AMD Noise Suppression and RNNoise are other options, although some software filters can make your voice sound less natural. Hardware placement still matters, and no live filter will perfectly separate two voices sitting next to each other.
Push-to-talk is the most dependable way to stop the microphones from opening whenever the other person speaks. It is less convenient than voice activation, but it avoids a lot of accidental overlap. If you want a headset microphone, the Corsair HS80 is often considered decent; the HS80 Max is reported to have a weaker microphone, so I would not assume the newer model is better.
If microphone quality is the priority, I would use closed-back headphones with a separate directional microphone. For example, DT 770 Pro headphones paired with a Shure microphone would give you good isolation and a clearer voice than most gaming headsets. A USB dynamic microphone is simpler and cheaper than adding an audio interface, though.
The best results usually come from combining directional microphones with software suppression rather than relying on either one alone.