AcousticMagic Voice Tracker, XLR Microphone, 19" L x 2.5" H x 2" W

If you are not planning on using this with a HomeSeer or similar system with voice recognition, my brief review may be of little use.I really had my doubts about this microphone actually working in my living room as a microphone for my HomeSeer's (home automation system) voice recognition. It took a bit of testing under my conditions to determine what worked best for my living room acoustics, but the entire testing took less than 30 minutes. I have the HomeSeer's microphone gain almost maxed out, but I can be on the other side of the room with a relatively quiet ceiling fan running and I get great recognition. I can be sitting on the couch and say "Computer" and the computer will reply with "Yes sir" waiting for a spoken command like "turn on the living room lights". The only thing is I have to mute the TV before I say "computer" otherwise the HomeSeer constantly replies with an "I don't understand" due to the TV voices and sounds. That is not the fault of the microphone.This is NOT a cheap microphone and I almost took off one star just for the high price. However, it really works and is reliable so I feel like I got what I paid for.

I suspended this microphone from a high classroom ceiling where there was low-level noise coming from above the ceiling tiles from an energy return unit. I mounted the microphone so that it would point downward toward students sitting in seats and I hoped it would pick them up. It did. Unfortunately, the digital noise reduction built-in to this unit attempted to filter out the noise from above and, consequently, there was a "babbling brook" effect. I had to return it. It's too bad as there is a massive need for this type of microphone in classrooms, but the "babbling brook" effect renders this one less-than-effective in my classroom.

We are using the Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker in recording audio during our Chat & Chow sessions on campus using the Tegrity A/V capture software. This captures our audio not only from our session speakers but it also tracks and picks up audio from guest questions and discussions. This is a great microphone for speakers that move around and questions that come from various audience members around the room.

I was skeptical, but in need of a device to put in our 20'x40' conference room for our all hands meetings. The feedback from the field is that it works well and they even pick up parts of conversations that they don't expect too. I wish that it had USB output, but that is a minor problem. Otherwise I'm very happy.

Although this Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker I Array Microphone (FYI: the Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker II Array Microphone is the newer model) is an excellent device for conference lecterns, as well as tele/video conferencing (such as Skype), it fails to perform well with computer speech-to-text (aka: voice recognition) applications.The reason I gave this device only a 2-star rating is because my review focuses solely on my speech-to-text requirement and experience.Unfortunately, the Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker I Array Microphone is heavily marketed as an excellent microphone for serious speech-to-text applications, such Dragon Naturally Speaking, and especially Ultra Hal Assistant v6.2 (a vintage 1st generation artificial intelligence application).And when used for this purpose, the Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker I Array Microphone, honestly, can't hold a candle to a quality, plug-in headset (noise cancelling microphone + comfortable ear pads). One will achieve far better accuracy with a headset, while Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker I Array Microphone users will spend forever editing and correcting the garbage that is produced from this 18-inch long array microphone.Further research revealed that the Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker I Array Microphone will only work in a totally quiet studio sound room, if used for speech-to-text applications, and even then, the rustling of papers, etc. will generate unspoken words and text gibberish on the computer screen.One would be wise to spend the same amount of time and energy, and simply download a typing freeware and quickly develop 40wpm typing skills, like I did.I have to confess that I'm disappointed, as I had added upgraded my laptop CPU, and the 18-inch long Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker I array microphone (6VDC, 400mA) nested quite neatly on the top of the opened up flat-screen laptop monitor. But especially with Ultra Hal Assistant v6.2, even with plugged-in remote speakers turned down to low volume, unspoken words and text gibberish were generated in my text box, by the voice feedback from the on-screen text-to-speech avatar.So, for Ultra Hal Assistant v6.2, either type all text by hand, and let the pretty, on-screen text-to-speech avatar freely talk on the speakers -or use a quality, plug-in headset (noise cancelling microphone + comfortable ear pads).In short, we have not yet arrived at headset-free HAL9000 ("2001: A Space Odyssey") applications.

This product came with a decal falling off and missing the power cable. After a replacement cable was sent and product tested in every mode available, it performed poorly with much static/noise when one is not speaking.

I have installed these in the meeting rooms for the City Council and Township Trustees. One microphone covers the whole room for recording. They both do a great job. For the long run at the city I converted to Cat5 using 3.5mm To 3.5mm Audio Balun Extender Over Cat5.

This isn't for teachers. The problem is that the microphone is directional. You can either pick up the class or the teacher standing in front of it, but not both. As a teacher, I wanted to attach it to my laptop at the front of the room but couldn't pick up myself and the students at the same time. On colleague puts it at the side of the room, but then you recording device has to be there too, next to the microphone, as the short cable doesn't stretch across the room. The 1/8" plug is also designed to plug directly into a computer's sound card. You may need an adapter (sold by the manufacturer) if you want to plug it into the 1/8" jack on your laptop. I had to use a USB soundcard adapter to get my this microphone to work. I was also unimpressed with the sound quality and weird noises the microphone picks up. This device is a kludge and is more trouble than it's worth. Alternatives are worth seeking out.