[Enekk]

So, here's the deal and I will fully understand if people just tell me that this is the wrong site to be asking these questions, but I thought the friendly people here might be able to help me.  I have recently started a sort of 'let's play' and one of the things that I've identified as a problem for me is recorded audio quality; my condenser microphone is very nice, but it picks up all sorts of stray noise (especially mouse and keyboard noise).  I asked around and found out that the Yogscast (a semi-pro video game podcasting group) primarily use Sennheiser PC 350s with some USB soundcards and one of them uses a Plantronics Gamecom 777.  I can hear how good their audio sounds and how free it is of background noise (unless that noise is very loud), but the price tag on those Sennheiser's is pretty high especially considering I already have a very nice set of ATH M50s for music.  Unfortunately, looking around online, you never really see reviews of the microphone on headsets unless they are reviews like "Sounds terrible".  As weird as this might be on head-fi, the headphone quality is probably less important to me for this purpose than the microphone quality.  Does anyone have any suggestions for good headsets that have mic quality that rival the Sennheiser's?  I'd love to not have to sacrifice too much audio quality, but I'm not sure I can really afford the price tag of the 350s right now.  
 
P.S. I have tried using one of those Zalman clip on mics.  This would be wonderful if I was just playing games, but for voice recording it comes off muddled and it sure as hell picks up every little background noise.  I am not opposed to a separate microphone (been looking at the MXL 990) if it can be shown that the thing won't pick up mouse clicks.

 

[rrahman]

I use the Sennheiser ME-3 attached to my T1.
 
I used to have a MMX300, which is a beyerdynamic dt770/32 w/ a beyerdynamic tg h54c.
 
Both of those mic's are very good quality and surpass the sennheiser pc350s.  
 
Shure and audiotechnica have similar competitor products, that I have no experience w/ but shure has a 70 dollar one w/ gooseneck.
 

 

[Enekk]

And how do they do with noise cancelation?  I'd be very happy to not have to get a headset if there were mics that'd fill the bill.
 
P.S. Does anyone know of a place like head-fi for microphones?

 

[Dom de B]

I can only recommend an external/ disconnected microphone. Something simple like a piece of carboard to block the keyboard out and not your voice. From the headphone mic's i've heard you can always here the person breathing which for me is very annoying.

 

[rrahman]

They don't do noise cancellation, but they are directional not omnidirectional.  I haven't had an issue w/ my keyboard, mouse clicks, air conditioner or even sound from my open backed headphones that I pair them w/ going into the mic.
 
They do rest on ur ears or headphone however...
 
Quote:

And how do they do with noise cancelation?  I'd be very happy to not have to get a headset if there were mics that'd fill the bill.
 
P.S. Does anyone know of a place like head-fi for microphones?