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> The ModMic Wireless also works around the "Bluetooth sound quality is shit in headset mode" issue, since your headphones are in output-only (A2DP) mode

I will never understand for the life of me why the hell bi-directional high-quality audio over Bluetooth still isn't a thing, even in 2025.

Bluetooth has MORE than enough bandwidth. 320 kbps output gives you damn near lossless quality, and just 128 kbps would be plenty for single-channel microphone audio, and honestly even just 64 kbps would be be fine. You would need at most 500 kbps. Bluetooth is capable of more than that.

Even if there's no bidirectional high quality standard (HFP is bidirectional, but low quality), Bluetooth allows simultaneous logical connections of multiple profiles at the same time. Sure, your computer has an A2DP connection as the source to your headphones as a sink. Why can't a headset also open a second A2DP connection with itself as the source and the computer as the sink?

It just doesn't make sense that a spec that's been around for what, 20 years has failed to keep up. I hate that as a gamer, I can't use the Bluetooth built into my motherboard to use a gaming headset if I want high quality audio. I have to get a headset with a proprietary dongle and then remember to bring it with me to LAN parties.

Bluetooth 5 added audio for BLE called LE Audio with LC3 codec. BLE has higher (24 Mbps vs 1 Mbps) bandwidth than Bluetooth Classic. Bluetooth 5 headphones are available now.

That would have been perfect time to update headsets. It sounds like A2DP can do backchannel now and there is Qualcomm proposed FastStream. But it isn't implemented widely and probably won't be until standardized.

>You can look up sound quality comparisons on YouTube, these two devices are far ahead of even the most expensive business/gaming headsets. It makes a vast difference in sound quality.

Assuming that's true, I'm not even sure I care. A halfway decent business or gaming headset sounds fine for Zoom or Teams, especially if it's wired to the audio jacks or has a usb connection. It's only the cheapest garbage that has problems. If you are doing audiobook narration or something sure, go for something better, but as long as you spend $50 or so you're fine for virtual meetings.

I am slowly coming around to the idea of desk mics, like you I detest the idea of it hanging in my peripheral vision on the desk or monitor arms etc...

Even at the higher end of closed back headphones, there is a still a decent bit of noise leak.

I've Had V-Moda mic in the past, as well as Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic headsets with boom mics.

It usually isn't a problem with the relatively low volumes in a meeting, but any other time the noise leak is enough to get reliably picked up on recordings etc...

Ah yes. I never thought about that since I use closed-back headphones. (Bose 700 ANC)

Good point, what I use that is great at the desk is a gooseneck stand - SO much easier to move around while working than normal mic stand, you just bend it out of the way. Put one of those on a stand with a big circular weighted bottom and you're gold.

What about lav mics? Are they a good option if you're willing to clip one on?

I think so, but I've never tried. I like to move around during calls so for me the ModMic Wireless + my existing Bluetooth headphones was the best option. I don't think there's any system out there that can beat the physical flexibility and ease of use of this setup.

The ModMic comes with a tiny magnetic nub that adheres (permanently) onto the headphones. Then the ModMic itself snaps onto / off of that magnetic element, so it takes literally 2 seconds to take it on/off.

Cheap ($10) lapel microphones from Amazon tend to have extremely acceptable sound quality for me. They tend to record even subsonic frequencies fairly well.

why would you want to record subsonic frequencies?

recording the output of my transducer (bass shaker), for one. Of course it's only really perceptible to others with transducers or very good headphones, but having enough output to still sound good enough through a recording is a point of pride for me.

Lav mics and boom mics are great because they solve the problem so many other designs are trying hard to work around: distance from the speaker’s mouth to the transducer.

An inexpensive omnidirectional lav can sound good for much less money and much more reliably than complicated software-steered mic arrays or even desktop mics with various pickup patterns can in the hands of an average consumer because the source audio, proportionally, is so much louder than any background or room noises due simply to distance. Because of the inverse-square law, every time you halve the distance between source and mic you get 4 times the acoustic power, so much better signal to noise ratio.

Real situations exist where simply putting the microphone closer to the mouth isn’t good enough to solve the problem on its own, and that’s why stage microphones have those pickup patterns that reject more noise but require some technique to use. That’s not the reality for most people giving a presentation on their laptop, though.