The most important thing for good sound is distance between the mic and your mouth - since SnR falls off with the square of distance. Some people use a standalone mic mounted to an arm on the front of their desk, but I find that to be too intrusive and ugly. The ideal setup is a headphone with a boom mic.

A lot of business conference headphones have a boom mic, as well as gaming headphones, but they all cheap out on the actual microphone element. For ideal sound quality you want to get a V-Moda BoomPro (wired, $20) or an Antlion ModMic Wireless ($140). These tack onto your existing headphones with a small magnetic clip (so you can take it off when not in a call). You can look up sound quality comparisons on YouTube, these two devices are far ahead of even the most expensive business/gaming headsets. It makes a vast difference in sound quality.

The ModMic Wireless also works around the "Bluetooth sound quality is shit in headset mode" issue, since your headphones are in output-only (A2DP) mode and the ModMic has its own separate Bluetooth connection for mic-only.

Finally, camera quality and lighting are important too. Here's a good article on lighting: https://languageoflight.blog/2020/10/08/time-zooms-by/. For the camera you can use an actual camera (DSLR/mirrorless, ideally with a fast lens) with an HDMI capture card, there's plenty of info about this available on the internet. An old iPhone can also work quite well afaik? Either way, it'll be much better than a webcam, particularly if your room's lighting conditions aren't ideal.

I am slowly coming around to the idea of desk mics, like you I detest the idea of it hanging in my peripheral vision on the desk or monitor arms etc...

Even at the higher end of closed back headphones, there is a still a decent bit of noise leak.

I've Had V-Moda mic in the past, as well as Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic headsets with boom mics.

It usually isn't a problem with the relatively low volumes in a meeting, but any other time the noise leak is enough to get reliably picked up on recordings etc...

What about lav mics? Are they a good option if you're willing to clip one on?

I think so, but I've never tried. I like to move around during calls so for me the ModMic Wireless + my existing Bluetooth headphones was the best option. I don't think there's any system out there that can beat the physical flexibility and ease of use of this setup.

The ModMic ships with a tiny magnetic nub that adheres (permanently) onto the headphones. Then the ModMic itself snaps onto / off of that magnetic element, so it takes literally 2 seconds to take it on/off.

Protip: Don't use Bluetooth headphones as your microphone input source. The audio gets massively compressed. https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/10dit8y/lowquality_b...

Use the laptop microphone as the input instead, or if no microphone is present just buy an external microphone. You probably don't need a $300 podcast-class microphone since the audio still gets compressed in transit, though.

These days, most premium and/or business laptops (MacBooks, ThinkPads), etc have mic arrays that are far superior to those on earbuds anyway, being capable of eliminating background noise without negatively impacting audio quality.

I use my Rhode condenser mic, that I use for recording vocals, as my Google Meet mic while at home. I've lost track of the amount of people who have said "WOW" when I start talking and then go on to tell me how good my voice sounds. It's kind of lame, but true that I do stand out more when presenting to executive leadership. I've even had one VP remember me because of my mic and audio quality.

Investing in a decent mic and paying a little attention to lighting is the new "buying a decent suit and having it tailored".

Yup. But the AV setup is cheaper, easier to maintain, and more comfortable.

Any tips for good mics? Any good options that are not immediately in front of your face?

I bought a Yeti Blue a while back, and several people commented positively on its sound quality. I'm pleased with it, especially given its decent price: it's not a bank-breaker for being such a huge upgrade over the built-in laptop mic.

As a bonus, it has a hardware mute button on it. Now I usually leave my Zoom unmuted, and use the button to toggle whether my coworkers can hear me. It's more convenient than clicking the Zoom button or finding the keyboard shortcut.

I’m a fan of Saramonic’s MV2000 (https://saramonicusa.com/sr-mv2000-large-diaphragm-usb-studi...) is an affordable, good quality cardiod mic.

Frequently available for $50 and supports live headphone pass through if that’s your jam.

You'll want some kind of shotgun mic. The rode videomic2 is a good budget option. It has a standard 3/8" thread you can use with a desk boom.

I've been using one for a few years now and am really happy with it.

Every now and then (once every 1-2 weeks) it drops off of the list of inputs on OSX but unplug and plug it back in usually fixes that.

ugh, true

not just tinny sound.

if it is an annoyance, chore, or PITA, to listen, even if its something asked for, there had better be compelling content , else it is dumped quickly