Mic Test
Click start, allow microphone access, and speak. The audio never leaves your device — everything is processed locally.
What a healthy mic looks like
Speaking at a normal distance, the level bar should reach the middle-to-upper range and the waveform should visibly react to your voice. If the bar barely moves, raise the input volume in your OS sound settings or move closer to the mic. If it's pinned at 100% and the playback sounds crackly, lower the input gain.
The playback test matters more than the meter — record the 5-second clip and listen for hum, echo, robotic artifacts, or one-sided audio. That's what people on your calls actually hear.
Mic not detected or permission blocked?
If nothing happens after clicking start, check the padlock icon in your address bar and re-allow microphone access. On macOS, the browser itself also needs mic permission under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone. If you have multiple devices, use the dropdown to pick the right one — headsets sometimes register two entries (headset mic vs. built-in).
Why you sound quiet, robotic, or echoey on calls
Too quiet: usually input gain, not the mic — raise it in OS sound settings, and check whether your meeting app has its own "automatically adjust volume" toggle fighting you. Robotic or underwater: aggressive noise suppression (in the app, the OS, or the headset's own firmware) chewing up your voice — turn one layer off at a time and re-record here to find the culprit. Echo: your mic is picking up your speakers; headphones fix it instantly, or move the mic away and lower speaker volume.
The Bluetooth headset trap
A surprising amount of "my expensive headphones sound terrible on calls" comes down to Bluetooth itself: the moment an app opens your headset's microphone, most headsets drop from the high-quality music profile (A2DP) to the hands-free profile (HFP) — narrow bandwidth, mono, walkie-talkie quality, for both directions. Record a clip here over Bluetooth and compare it with the built-in laptop mic: if the built-in wins clearly, that's the profile switch, not a broken headset. Newer codecs (LE Audio) fix this, but only when every link in the chain supports them; a cheap USB mic sidesteps the whole problem.
Picking which mic to trust
Rough quality ladder for calls: phone/tablet built-in mics are tuned aggressively and usually sound fine; laptop built-ins vary wildly and pick up keyboard noise; headset booms sit closest to your mouth and win on noisy backgrounds; a $30+ USB condenser wins on richness but needs a quiet room. Whatever you pick, the 5-second recording above — moved between devices with the dropdown — is the honest comparison: same room, same voice, same sentence.