Why use a USB Mic ?

• Dragon speech recognition requires high quality sound input to work accurately. If it doesn't hear your properly then you will get very low accuracy.
• We recommend the Andrea NC181VM USB digital noise canceling microphone for Dragon NaturallySpeaking. There are thousands of NC181VM USB Microphone users in Australia right now and all of the feedback we get is positive.
• The NC181VM USB has the highest accuracy rating as tested by Dragon technicians. 6 out of 6 Dragon Stars for accuracy.
• Most new computers use “onboard sound cards” and these are often of low quality
• This means that Dragon cannot hear your voice clearly and you will get poor results and inaccurate dictation results.
• This is not because the included microphone is not good enough, but because the sound card in your computer ultimately determines the quality
• USB Digital microphones ( NC181USB ) and USB POD's bypass your onboard soundcard.They create a new digital external sound card with digital noise canceling built in.
• This means that you will get consistent, accurate, reliable results with Dragon when using a quality approved USB microphone.
• Please note; NOT ALL USB MICROPHONES are good quality. Some cheap chinese and the Logitech USB microphones are NOT good enough for Dragon. Many users have called us and bought the NC181VMUSB after buying the Logitech USB microphone. They wasted their money on the Logitech USB headset.
• Quality USB microphones are usual easier to set up and manage for most people. Most of them are noise canceling as well meaning they reduce your background noise improving accuracy

There are several reasons why you should upgrade to a USB digital microphone like the NC181VM or the Jabra GN9330USB .

Firstly, how does the Dragon software listen to your voice?

Once you've loaded the Dragon software onto your computer you plug the included standard analogue headset into the microphone input and speaker output( this is optional, you may use your desktop speakers for output) of your computer.  The input and output  are usually at the rear or at the front of your computer with a pink and green sockets. These sockets directly interface to the on board sound card of your computer.  The sound card processes the sound of your voice and transmits it to the program for transcription.  If at any point during this process the audio quality is degraded then the accuracy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking drops significantly.

The included standard analogue microphone with Dragon naturally is sufficient to operate the software provided the sound card on your computer (that's the interface between the microphone and Dragon NaturallySpeaking) is of sufficient quality.

Unfortunately many sound cards, even on brand-new computers do not return a good-quality audio input into the Dragon naturally speaking program. 

Some of them transmit noise from the hard drive and fans in your computer, some of them have other electronic noises that mask your voice when using Dragon 10 and significantly degrade the audio quality. Some sound cards did not amplify your voice sufficiently and Dragon cannot hear you well enough.  This means the Dragon may be very inaccurate because of the poor audio quality.  In fact Dragon may not even work at all. A worst case scenario is that you're only getting about 50 to 60%  audio quality and Dragon does in fact they you to continue.  You think you're getting poor results with Dragon , but the reality is the program just cannot hear you clearly.  You try to persevere with the program and are not happy with the results. You become frustrated and disillusioned with speech recognition software. Don't let this happen to you.

All along this is because you have a poor quality sound card in your computer.  It has nothing to do with the Dragon software at all.The solution to this is to use an approved USB microphone.  Essentially, USB microphones create their own separate external sound card for your computer.

  They completely bypass existing sound card eliminating it from being used at all with Dragon 10 .The USB sound cards are always high quality and deliver a crisp clear audio signal to the Dragon program.  They also amplify your voice and this helps a lot with Dragon.  They are also noise canceling, helping eliminate some of your background noise.Some of the USB sound cards integrated into complete headsets.  An example of this is the Andrea NC181VMUSB ,and the Jabra GN9330 USB microphone as advertised in our website.  You simply plug these microphones into your computer ( via the USB port) and use them instead of your sound card 

Now you will get accurate, reliable and  consistent speech recognition.The other option is to use a USB sound POD or adapter. Such as the Andrea USBSA POD.  These allow you to plug in any standard PC headset microphone.  However you results will improve significantly if you use a high-quality analog microphone like the Andrea NC 91, ANC700 or ANC750,

In noisy environments the ANC 700 or ANC 750 would be an ideal choice for use with a USB sound POD.  Another advantage of the sound POD is that if you microphone  breaks or malfunctions for any reason you can simply plug the relatively inexpensive analog microphone directly into the USB POD and your back running again. Basically though you will get the same results with either and integrated USB microphone or a USB POD and a quality analogue microphone.
It’s a matter of what suits your requirements.

Please contact us to discuss if you have any questions.