Included are a complimentary set of ear buds. Folks who have used VoIP or TeamSpeak style communication applications
know that loudspeakers and microphones don’t play nice together. Constant echoes and reverberations are a side effect,
and can be neutralized if headphones are used instead of PC speakers. The ear buds are a welcome accessory for VoIP
communications, however the sound quality of the bundled set are not very adequate for listening to MP3’s.
To illustrate the size of the MicMouse, it is placed beside a Logitech MX300 on a RatPad. The MicMouse very much
resembles the size and shape of a standard scroll wheel mouse.
Testing:
The following test setup was used to evaluate the performance of the MicMouse.
- AMD Athlon 3200+ XP
- DFI NF2 Infinity Ultra
- Windows XP Pro
- Cooledit 2000
- Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card
Cooledit 2000 was employed to record various sound files at different stages of MicMouse use.
Test File 1 demonstrates the MicMouse recording a sound file at 3 feet
away from my face, sitting plainly on my desk with my hands on my lap.
Test File 2 demonstrates the MicMouse recording a sound file at 3 feet
away from my face, with my hand gripping the mouse in normal fashion. The mouse was not moved at all for this test.
Test File 3 demonstrates the MicMouse recording a sound file at 3 feet
away from my face, with my hand gripping the mouse in normal fashion as I move the mouse from side to side on my
RatPadz gaming mouse surface.
Test File 4 demonstrates the MicMouse recording a sound file at 3 feet
away from my face, with my hand gripping the mouse in normal fashion, as I move the mouse from side to side on my
RatPadz gaming surface while I click the mouse buttons.
The MicMouse does a nice job of picking up my voice from a respectable distance. Sound quality is good, a slight echo
can be attributed to the concrete floor and walls of my unfinished basement, so this side-effect can be ignored in the
test file. As we ramp up to simulating a hand gripping the mouse while being involved in a VoIP conversation, the
recording quality is again very adequate. As well, when I introduce mouse movement while recording my voice the
recording quality is very well positioned for a VoIP application or team based gaming. Mouse movement is barely
noticeable. This is respectable as a solid RatPad surface is used, this too should simulate usage if you do not use a
mouse pad. I suspect that mouse movement will not be picked up by the microphone if a standard neoprene mouse pad is
used.
Pros:
Cons:
