A good microphone and headphones for Zooming

I’ve always used wireless headphones for my Zoom conferencing. I’ve been fortunate to always be able to afford top of the line (at the time) Bose noise canceling headphones.

My voice sounded OK to others. But just OK.

My new job starts one week from tomorrow and I’ve decided to use my new employer’s home-office stipend to up my game.

My previous Bose headphones became flaky and then fell apart. So I replaced them with wired earbuds. They were meh.

So the first thing I’m gonna do is buy a new pair of Bose 700 headphones.

Then I’ll buy a higher quality microphone than what comes with the headphones. I’m considering a Blue Yeti Pro with a good boom arm.

A friend recommended the Deity S-Mic 2 Pro shotgun mic. It’s quite slick but is just over the line of what I’m willing to spend. It also requires a power adapter so using it is a little more involved.

An alternative is to get the Bose 700 UC headphones. It uses a USB dongle to improve Bluetooth efficiency and transmission audio quality. Meaning, the microphone’s quality as perceived by others. There’s no improvement FWIR to the reception quality.

Transmission quality won’t be important if I’m using a dedicated microphone in my office, with the door closed. And I don’t expect to need to maximize the usefulness of a single charge of the headphones’ battery. Or I could buy the UC model and not get a dedicated microphone. I think the transmission quality wouldn’t be as good but it’d be a simpler setup.

Nah. I want the dedicated microphone.