Headset Mic Test

Testing your headset mic

1. Plug in or connect the headset first, then click Start microphone test and allow the microphone.
2. Look at the Microphone list. If it shows your laptop’s or webcam’s mic, pick the headset; the test restarts with it.
3. Click Hear myself and talk. You hear the headset mic live in the headset, so you know straight away whether it’s the right mic and whether it crackles, hums or cuts out when you move the cable.
4. Read the meters: speak at your normal volume and watch the RMS level and the diagnosis. Then stay quiet for the noise floor.

If the meters don’t move, check the mute switch: many headsets have one on the cable or on the earcup, and Microsoft’s Fix microphone problems page lists it too. The same page shows where Windows 11 lets apps use the microphone: Settings > Privacy & security > Microphone. On a Mac, Apple’s sound input settings page shows how to pick the headset as the input.

Reading the result for a headset

A headset mic sits a few centimeters from your mouth, so it should be loud and well above the background: a voice level a long way above the noise floor is normal. If the voice level is very low, the computer may be recording from a different mic in the room, or the input volume is turned down in the system settings. If it clips, lower that input volume.

Rubbing or crackling you hear when you touch the cable is a worn plug or cable rather than a settings problem, and a hum that changes when you move the plug points to a loose connection. Record 5 seconds with Record to play it back, or compare by plugging the headset into another device.

Before a call or a game

The browser gives this test the same microphone and the same kind of processing that web call apps get. Turn all three Browser processing boxes on to hear roughly what a call app would send, then set the same input in the app itself: Zoom, Teams, Discord and games each have their own microphone setting, which can differ from the system’s default.

How this page is set up

This is the same microphone test as the standard mic test, opened with different settings. You can change any of them once the test is running. Like the standard test, the page remembers only which microphone you picked.