Getting a proper microphone for gaming

[Nemesis6]

I'm the lucky owner of an X-fi Platinum card. I'm also the owner of what I've found out to be a very inadequate mic. It's a basic skype kind of mic. I've recently found out that, with my new speakers and sound card, playing at medium/high volume kind of drowns out my voice.

I need a mic that can be positioned on my desk and still not absorb (too much?) sound from my speakers playing at an acceptably big volume. What kind of microphone should I be going for? I'd prefer not to to get a clip on microphone since wires from my head for some reason drive me slightly crazy! :)

[Reegs]

Hi Nemesis,

Welcome to the forums.

Have you considered a headset mic, or is that too much like a clip-on? The serious gamers I know all own one and say not having to worry about where your face is in relation to the mic is a real plus. They also say that headphones help for spatial relation in games (as in enemy fire coming from your left is clearly on the left side of the headphones). They make wireless headsets now, though they are pricey.

Something like one of these perhaps:
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=gamer+headset&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=2035499473910232379#ps-sellers
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=wireless+gamer+headset&hl=en&cid=9720454526324493781&sa=title#ps-sellers

If you really want to play with speakers and use a mic, I think it will just end up being a compromise. Desktop-microphones have a limit to how much off-axis sound they reject, though positioning your mouth close on the mic to keep its power level low will probably help.

Hope that helps a bit,
Reegs

[Nemesis6]

Yeah, I have indeed tried headsets before. The thing about them is that they tend to give me a headache. Maybe I could overcome the wire problem when it's just one little thing going into the front bay of my computer.

I've been looking at these clip ons, and there are a lot of them, and they're all pretty cheap. Sennheiser and Logitech are apparently the best from what I hear. If I were to go for a relatively cheap one and still have some reasonable noise/feedback cancellation at a reasonable price, which one would you recommend?

[Reegs]

Sennheiser and Logitech both make very good products, but I haven't had any experience with their clip-on mics. I'd say pick the one with more and better reviews, and buy it from a place with a good return policy. Then, if you don't like the first one, exchange it for the other!

[Harmony]

Do you guys have any idea about psp headphones and mic?

[Reegs]

How about the official Sony one? Looks like there's still one available:
http://www.amazon.com/PSP-Headset-Sony/dp/B000C3MKFI