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Last active November 14, 2022 05:51
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Simple Audio Setup for WFH on a Budget
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audio_guide.md

Setting Up Your Audio for WFH on a Budget

With the recent quarantine and WFH measures, our use of teleconferencing software not just doubles but more likely quadruples. Me personally, I went from an average of 2 conference calls on my busiest week to 2-3 conf-calls every day.

We started to use teleconferencing software for everything – work, talking to friends and loved ones, playing table-top games and whatnot. And that's all neat and great until someone joins the call with a static noise, echo, audio feedback screeching noise, and the call turns into a competition of who can refrain from killing themselves the longest.

So below are some tips on how to put together a decent WFH audio setup on a budget.

Audio Jacks

Before we proceed let's make sure we all understand the nuts and bolts of connecting audio devices.

We usually see two "types" of audio: analogue (primarily) and digital. Digital audio we mostly see in the form of USB headsets or speakers; almost everything else is analogue, which means that the signal in the wire directly translates into membrane vibrations.

Analogue audio is typically connected using a so-called audio jack that looks like this:

Two variants of a standard 3.5mm audio jack

This is a standard 3.5mm audio jack, but there are also less popular 2.5mm jack that were shortly used for smaller devices, and a 6.35mm audio jack that is typically used in professional audio equipment. Apparently, there's also a 4.4mm one, but I never saw one myself.

Similar 3.5mm audio jacks are used to connect both speakers/headphones and microphones. Speakers/headphones are connected to a so-called "line out", which is often denoted with green color. Microphone is plugged in a microphone line, which is often denoted with red color.

If you have a headset with a microphone, you might get two jacks at the end of the wire - one for the mic and one for the headphones; or you can get a single combined jack (as you often see in the headsets that come bundled with your phone).

Usually, in your laptop, tablet or phone you won't see two audio connectors, instead you'll find a single audio connector for the combined jack. Now, for headphones or speakers to work, you can plug any 3.5mm jack into any 3.5mm connector and it should work just fine. But for the mic, that is not always the case since different companies at different times modified the jack in their own way to accommodate microphones:

90% of manufacturers of devices and headsets adhere to Apple connector but it is possible to find a headset with Nokia jack and some older devices may expect a Nokia connector.

Now on to devices that can help you with your home audio setup!

Headset

This is probably the most important part of your audio setup for online calls and teleconferencing.

Rule #1 of teleconferencing: use headphones. If you don't, your peers will get echo and audio feedback and it's just the worst. Your phone and laptop and the teleconferencing software are making some efforts to cut out the echo and feedback, but there's only that much they can do. If you are wearing headphones, there won't be an issue in the first place.

Typically your laptops, tablets, phones come with a built-in microphone. So you can plug in any headphones you already have, e.g. the one that came with your phone, whether they have a microphone or not. Usually, the built-in microphones are quite bad so it makes sense to go for a headset with a microphone. Here are some good choices for different budget levels:

Headset Adapters

If your headset comes with two 3.5mm jacks, one for headphones and one for mic, you might need an adapter to plug those in your device if it only has one 3.5mm audio connector.

If you have a USB headset and you would like to use it with a phone or a tablet, you would need a so-called USB OTG adapter.

Audio Splitter

Sometimes there are several people joining the call from the same device and this forces them to use speakers, which in turn causes echo and audio feedback. An easy solution would be an audio splitter – a simple Y-shaped wire with 2 female 3.5mm audio connectors and 1 male 3.5mm audio jack.

There also are multi-way splitters, like these:

Note that those generally won't work for microphones! Also, don't mix them up with line-out/mic splitters that look very similar (more on those below). If unsure, take a look at the jack: Y-splitter should have a jack with 2 dark rings, and line-in/mic splitter jack would have 3 dark rings.

Audio Mixer

Now there might be an occasion where you would need to do the opposite, i.e., to use same headphones/speakers to listen to audio coming from two devices. Unfortunately, that can't be solved with same simplicity as splitting the sound. You would need a piece of equipment called an audio mixer. Below is one of the cheapest options to get one:

Note that it uses 6.35mm jacks, so you would need adapters for your standard 3.5mm jacks:

Microphones

If you really want to step up your audio game, you would need a standalone microphone. There is no point in getting a cheap one since it's better to just go with a headset or built-in microphone. So here are some good USB microphone choices at a price that's slightly higher than pocket change:

Webcam

Most devices today come with a built-in webcam. However, the quality is often quite meh. If you want to look bright and crisp, you might consider getting a standalone webcam.

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