I suspect that this microphone of mine has developed some kind of fault. A local company re-terminated (and sold) it for me so it is effectively the pro8hemw model (its connector now fits with any mobile phone, et cetera standard socket). I'm using it together with the Andrea USB-SA. I've been using this combination for about six months, once a week when I work from home. It's been fine until I moved in December and then I first tried to use it about week ago something had changed. I did take very good care of it during the move, carrying it separately so that it wouldn't get squashed/damaged during the move. However, these are some of the symptoms:

-Randomly dictating "no" when I breathe in
-struggling to recognise "new-line" as a command (it will dictate "new", "you line", ..)
-My colleagues complain of heavy breathing during zooming meeting (I consistently keep the microphone at the same distance from my mouth as before, the design of the microphone boom makes this straightforward)
-Dictating "save file" recognised as "state farm"
-Dictating "2x6" becomes "26" (I dictate this as "no space, numeral two, no space no caps X, no space numeral six")

Now I wasn't sure whether it's the microphone, the Andrea or even my loan laptop (provided by IT department) being at fault. Dragon would periodically prompt me complaining it was receiving low quality audio throughout this.

Bringing the Andrea + Audio Technica into work (desktop machine), it would still complain of low quality audio however not through the pop-up prompt. But rather in the Dragon bar and whenever I looked at "view recognition history". The recognition accuracy now would be not great but at least better than on the laptop at home. I did notice that it had now started to pick up speech from people talking in the corridor outside my office. I've never noticed this before and find it curious given that it's supposed to be a noise cancelling headset and my office door (kept 1 inch open) is over my right shoulder..

At work I have a Sennheiser ME3-II headset paired with a USB Buddy 6G. So I plugged the Audio Technica headset into my 6G and tried it on my desktop computer. I only got a couple of steps into the new profile guide, dragon consistently rejecting the Audio Technica headset after I read to it (3rd/fourth step of the guide?).

I suspected/was hoping my loan laptop may be the issue but this Sennheiser/USB buddy 6G combination is working reasonably well at home with the laptop.
I also tested Andrea + Sennheiser but that seemed all right.


So am I correct in thinking that my AT headset has developed, or is in the process of developing, some kind of fault? Did I overlook anything?
The company that re-terminated and sold me the headset has a 24 month warranty, but I am wondering how I can prove this fault to them?

I would highly appreciate any advice on this, thank you for reading this.

 

I should add that both environments are mostly quiet (home and office).

Trawling previous posts, there may be a separate reason why my AT and USB Buddy 6G wouldn't work at all:

("Pro 8HEmW not recommended for use with the Buddy 6G or Buddy 7G")

 

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The Audio-Technica Pro 8HEmW microphone (w/KB PLUS PACK) is designed for speech recognition without soldering or adapters but the overall design is for concert use and typically handled by roadies; another term for “guerrillas without borders” or how the Big Haired Lady handles everything (bull in a china shop). You should be able to throw your microphone into a brick wall or drop it from 50 feet onto asphalt. In other words, we have never used a more rugged microphone. You shouldn't have to baby it but…

The problem is your microphone. We can't tell you exactly what's wrong but it's probably not repairable. Audio-Technica includes a 2 year warranty on all of their microphones that are not physically adapted.

Consider this the perfect time to replace your microphone. Advertisement coming… In our opinion, the new Shokz OpenComm UC Bone Conduction Bluetooth headset microphone is worn the same way as the Audio-Technica Pro 8HEmW but is wireless, far more comfortable, includes high fidelity stereo playback (via the bone construction) more accurate and more noise filtering. Yup, we thought it was impossible to be more noise filtering than the Audio-Technica Pro 8HEmW, which can handle nearly everything. Additional information can be found at Shokz OpenComm UC Review

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Thank you Lunis, appears I've been incredibly rough with it or just unlucky. I've had it for 1.5 years and retermination means no 24 month warranty for me.

That Shokz headset sounds very appealing, but a VXI bluetooth headset (Blue Parrot I think it was called) I tried (8 years ago?) was slower to respond. And even worse, variable in reaction time so of no use to me.
I didn't see anything of that in the review you linked, so is the Shokz consistent in responding to speech? (I was using the VXI headset with it's bluetooth dongle, FWIW)

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We have never approved or recommended the VXi Blueparrott. The accuracy could explain the sluggishness. The OpenComm UC is a different animal. The more accurate your dictation is the faster it will land in the target. Bluetooth shouldn't be a problem. Our OpenComm UC was only a smidgen faster than our Addasound USB headset but we suspect it was the slight accuracy Edge rather than Bluetooth vs USB.

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Thank you for confirming that.
I am tempted by the Shokz but there is no way that my manager would ever prove that sort of cost for a headset. Was wondering whether you could recommend anything around the £100 mark (~100-125USD?)?
I noticed the Addasound headsets in your shop, they look pretty good but unfortunately not so easy to find in the UK for those of us who avoid Amazon like the plague.. I have sent them an email to see whether they know of any other supplier in the UK.
Meanwhile, I have been using my Sennheiser ME 3-II headset for a decade without issues so I'm tempted by the newer model (the ME 3). Would it be as good for speech recognition as its predecessor?

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If you wish to replace your Sennheiser ME3 with a good copy, check out the Audio-Technica Pro 8HEmW microphone (w/KB PLUS PACK). I believe this microphone features the same noise filtering, accuracy and comfort. We stopped carrying the ME3 because the extension cord has a tendency to fall out. The Audio-Technica Pro 8HEmW does not suffer from this problem. You may be able to source this locally but this exact model may be difficult to find and don't forget to add an extension cord

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Thank you Lunis.

Problems is it's difficult finding the mW variety here in the UK. I could use the "local" company again but they'll reterminate a different model so may just end up in the same seat again if it fails like my existing headset (no manufacturer's warranty). Strange how the HEmW is plentiful on your side of the Atlantic but not here..

If shipping wasn't so expensive I'd order it from your directly.

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Audio-Technica Pro 8HEmW popularity was slim in the US but possibly plentiful now because of speech recognition popularity. Sennheiser is basically the king of the hill while Audio-Technica is probably a little hungry. At one time, Sennheiser agreed to make a model of the ME3 included a 10 foot cable but it was apparently too much trouble for too little profit and they discontinued it. That's when we switched to Audio-Technica. We didn't like the idea of voiding the 2 year Sennheiser warranty by adapting it for speech recognition or adding an extension cord that could not be secured. The 8HEmW features the same ME3 quality at a lower price.

Another option would be to purchase a different Audio-Technica microphone and add an adapter. Our only problem with this workaround is that the more adapters you add, the greater chance of problems.

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