New headset mic has annoying background noise

[svobo00650]

Hey everyone. Recently bought a new headset, an Etekcity Scroll H5GX. Saw some reviews on youtube, and the mic tests sounded especially good which is why I got it. However, now that I've tested the mic for myself, there is an annoying "ringing" background noise that I can't seem to get rid of.

This is what it sounds like: https://streamable.com/m87km

Any idea what this might be and how I can fix it?

 

[shag00]

Try the rear mic jack if you are using the front or vice versa. That may be fan noise or another electric motor noise if you have one nearby. A work-around may be to record through software and use a high frequency filter.

 

[svobo00650]

Try the rear mic jack if you are using the front or vice versa. That may be fan noise or another electric motor noise if you have one nearby. A work-around may be to record through software and use a high frequency filter.

Just tried switching ports, still hearing the noise. I've been playing around with Noise Reduction/Suppression but that seems to decrease the microphone quality. Been recording with Audacity.

 

[shag00]

I don't have an answer for the cause of the noise but you have a recording of it. It seems to be confined to a narrow frequency so I would use a spectrograph to identify it and a compressor to isolate it, if it's only a 1Khz band it won't affect your recordings to badly but that of course depends on what you are recording.

 

[svobo00650]

I don't have an answer for the cause of the noise but you have a recording of it. It seems to be confined to a narrow frequency so I would use a spectrograph to identify it and a compressor to isolate it, if it's only a 1Khz band it won't affect your recordings to badly but that of course depends on what you are recording.

Not recording anything except occasional podcasts. Mainly using it for voice chat with friends.

I don't believe I have a spectrograph. Would that be the only way to find the problem?

 

[shag00]

I use wavelab and a spectrograph is built in, maybe for audacity too. If not pretty confident there would be a plug-in with it. The other way is to playback your recording with a compressor or multi band compressor and use trial and error. For example you might start off with your compressor set to apply -18dB between 8khz and 20 khz. If that kills the noise then try 10khz and 18khz etc etc. Keep narrowing the band until it as small as possible. The smaller the band the less distortion there will be to your recording. I choose 8khz as the start point because almost all human conversation is below that level.

 

[shag00]

Just checked, audacity has it https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/spectrogram_view.html

 

[svobo00650]

Just checked, audacity has it https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/spectrogram_view.html

Well it just so happens that the frequency of the background noise seems to be in the same range as my voice. Whenever I compress the frequencies of the background noise, it greatly distorts my voice's sound quality.

 

[svobo00650]

Just checked, audacity has it https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/spectrogram_view.html

Okay, I tested the headset on my laptop and there was no background noise. This probably means there's something wrong with the microphone jack rather than the mic itself. I went back to my desktop and tried both the front and back jacks, and wiggled it around as much as I could (without forcing it), but still can't get rid of the noise.

 

[shag00]

I think you are about out of options, it's hardly worth buying a sound card to try and fix the problem, the noise is at the wrong frequency but your laptop works OK...