CAD Audio U7 USB boundary microphone review

[jitterjames]

I don't think it makes sense to put an amulet on the wall.  For one thing, it only works when you are relatively close to it, which is one of the reasons it works so well.  I think if you want to be able to use it form anywhere in the house a good wireless headset with good enough range would be the best way to have it "all the time".

Otherwise some kind of intercom system might make sense.

I don't really know, the microphone has always been the biggest hurdle in the VoxCommando equation.

This looks like it might be worth a read, and I'm sure there is other good information out there:
http://www.iautomate.com/pages/Whole-House-Microphones.html

[Kalle]

I don't think it makes sense to put an amulet on the wall.  For one thing, it only works when you are relatively close to it, which is one of the reasons it works so well.  I think if you want to be able to use it form anywhere in the house a good wireless headset with good enough range would be the best way to have it "all the time".

Otherwise some kind of intercom system might make sense.

I don't really know, the microphone has always been the biggest hurdle in the VoxCommando equation.

This looks like it might be worth a read, and I'm sure there is other good information out there:
http://www.iautomate.com/pages/Whole-House-Microphones.html

Ok, a solution with the shure mixer is out of "my" price range, but there are many good information how it can works. I'm sure that we can use a "semi-profesional" wireless micstation with 2-4 wireless mic's and range of 50 meters.

[fattybunter]

Has anyone else tried the CAD Audio U7 USB boundary microphone?  As many of you know I've been using the Kinect, which works well for me, but I was curious if anyone had a comparison or another opinion on the CAD Audio U7.  Unfortunately, anything but a boundary microphone is useless for me.

[jitterjames]

what about a voice tracker?

why is anything but a boundary mic useless for you?

[fattybunter]

Ah.. I didn't know those existed! Fantastic!

[fattybunter]

Off-topic at this point, but amazon reviews for the Acoustic Magic Voice tracker sound great for a speech recognition application:

http://www.amazon.com/Acoustic-Magic-Voice-Tracker/dp/B00134PT94/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1328557442&sr=1-1-catcorr

who wants to be the guinea pig??? 

[Kalle]

Off-topic at this point, but amazon reviews for the Acoustic Magic Voice tracker sound great for a speech recognition application:

http://www.amazon.com/Acoustic-Magic-Voice-Tracker/dp/B00134PT94/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1328557442&sr=1-1-catcorr

who wants to be the guinea pig???  

Hi fattybunter, yes we have seen this one for a long time ago, but no one have tested it. It is to expensive  

Kalle

http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Microphones#Voice_Tracker

[jitterjames]

I would also like to see this tested...

I would like to test it myself, but I would need to mail order from the USA and if it's not good it will be a big hassle (or maybe impossible) to send it back.  At that price it needs to be really good, and I suspect it will be great in a quiet environment but will still not work so well with music / video playing, so you would still need to use a remote (on-off / mute) button to turn it on and off to get really reliable results.  If someone has got some CA$H burning a hole in their pocket then they should go for it anyway!  Excellent for skype or other voip too, I'm sure.

I have found that the Kinect is actually not too bad using the new sdk as long as there is not too much other sound.  Still requires a remote (on-off / mute) button though, IMO.

[bp_pbs]

Alright for those who have read this post and need other reviews on this device. Here's mine:

My initial plan was to buy two of these and place them on the wall or ceiling so that I can be anywhere in the media room and the U7 will pick me up. I thought it wouldn't be a problem since I already setup Vox to stop listen whenever a movie plays (and listen when the movie stops/pause). So I purchased one on ebay for like 40 bucks. Installation was simple enough and it worked in Vox. Only one problem......The Mic is not loud enough. Meaning you can't be that far away. I was no more than 4 feet away before it had trouble understanding and start doing random commands, and this is in a quiet environment. I read to see if i can boost the mic but that feature was already on. I'm still trying to see if there is a way to boost the mic even more but so far no luck.

I have a studio mic that I was using before; which is hooked up to a mixer. This allowed me to adjust to volume of the mic past the windows settings. Might have to go back to that.

But those are just my 2 cents. hope this helps someone

[Kalle]

Alright for those who have read this post and need other reviews on this device. Here's mine:

My initial plan was to buy two of these and place them on the wall or ceiling so that I can be anywhere in the media room and the U7 will pick me up. I thought it wouldn't be a problem since I already setup Vox to stop listen whenever a movie plays (and listen when the movie stops/pause). So I purchased one on ebay for like 40 bucks. Installation was simple enough and it worked in Vox. Only one problem......The Mic is not loud enough. Meaning you can't be that far away. I was no more than 4 feet away before it had trouble understanding and start doing random commands, and this is in a quiet environment. I read to see if i can boost the mic but that feature was already on. I'm still trying to see if there is a way to boost the mic even more but so far no luck.

I have a studio mic that I was using before; which is hooked up to a mixer. This allowed me to adjust to volume of the mic past the windows settings. Might have to go back to that.

But those are just my 2 cents. hope this helps someone

Thanks for this fine report, the problem with a USB mic is, you have no chance to boost them with hardware  if you boost them with software, it clip always and the voice is not clear. The professional boundarry mics have a XLR connector with an active phantom power, that allowed it to use it with a hardware mixer or amplifier.

Kalle

[jitterjames]

I'm not an expert in this field Kalle, but I think if the signal is low you don't need to worry about clipping, but you will be boosting any noise as well, including any electrical stuff on the input path.  It is true that if you boost the gain enough so that you are loud from 10 feet away that you could get clipping when you then start talking from 2 feet away (depending on the characteristics of the mic) but I think that would be true of any system unless it is applying active input volume modulation (i.e. signal strength compression).

anyway, I'm surprised this mic doesn't work from further away.  I thought it was design to have a greater range.  I wonder if you could play with the position of it to get a slightly better result.

I hope you only bought one!

[bp_pbs]

@james
I thought the range was suppose to be good too..Its suppose to pick up sounds off of surfaces so I will trying placing it at different places to see if that gives me better results.

[bp_pbs]

Team,

So I actually mounted the CAD U7 on the ceiling of my media room and it works great. Picks up everything. So I guess it didn't like the surface of my desk.

Just wanted to keep y'all up to date.

[Kalle]

Team,

So I actually mounted the CAD U7 on the ceiling of my media room and it works great. Picks up everything. So I guess it didn't like the surface of my desk.

Just wanted to keep y'all up to date.

Nice to hear and thanks for the update.

Kalle

[jitterjames]

Cool. Photo?