UNACCEPTABLE call quality

[Nonononono2285]

I have no idea why my company uses Teams given how awful this is. The mic quality I experience is so woefully, unacceptably bad that my team CONSTANTLY complains. 

I am using a microphone and hardware set up that is over $500. This is a Professional XLR mic with a usb-c connection from a DAW to a M1 Mac. There is ZERO reason for the absolutely foul sound quality I experience when doing an echo test call, or on a call with my team.

 I have now been through 5 different microphones, including a microphone on Bluetooth headphones. NOTHING HELPS. I sound like I am talking through a crackling compressed tin can. 

How is this possible?  Any other program I record with, I come out with Podcast quality sound.

If I use teams, I sound like I have put no effort into my microphone at all and I don't care about my work. I sound sloppy and like I don't care enough to make it possible for my team to understand me.

This is COMPLETELY unacceptable. Fix this immediately. This is a core feature of Teams. It is beyond embarrassing on Microsoft's part that this is still an ongoing issue.

[#2]

This page is the tech community pages. While you will likely find folks providing support and hints/tips/guides, we'll likely be unable to fix your audio issues.

So a couple of things worth noting:

- You've changed microphones, so that has eliminated it being a microphone problem.
- You mentioned recording podcasts you don't have any issues, this is likely a bad comparison as I'd assume you're recording locally then publishing.
- Teams echo testing and calls are all routed over the network/internet, this means it is dependent on the performance of your internet/network connection.

I'm assuming based on how you addressed the conversation, you're not the administrator of Teams? If you are not, you should work with them as they'll be able to look at call quality reports to identify potential issues. If you _are_ the administrator, then you should look through the call quality reports to have a look at where the issues may be coming from.

[#3]

@jangliss yeah let's break that reply down a tad shall we? 

> This page is the tech community pages. While you will likely find folks providing support and hints/tips/guides, we'll likely be unable to fix your audio issues.

Then it's a good thing this post is a tech support issue that effects only teams audio quality.

> You mentioned recording podcasts you don't have any issues,

Incorrect. 

I said I had podcast-quality equipment. I said that in other programs that record, I had podcast-quality sound.  I never said anything about recording audio in programs that resulted in audio file production for post-processing. That's all you just making things up and assuming. Stop doing that, you know what assuming does. 

To be pedantically clear, when I speak in other calling programs that record and transmit my voice in real time, or use discord in the browser for voice chat, this issue does not occur.

is that clear enough for you? Or are you going to try and "gotchya" me again by making leaps and assuming again? 

> Teams echo testing and calls are all routed over the network/internet, this means it is dependent on the performance of your internet/network connection.

Dear me, I do hope my dedicated 1:1 gigabit connection can handle the data without packet loss. 

> I'm assuming

Yes, you've made that obvious.

I'll take my leave of this thread, it's not worth more of my time.  It boggles the mind that this is support for a paid product. 

[#4]

@Nonononono2285 

It sounds as if you might have audio level issues. It is VERY common that a level set for one app doesn't work for other apps. 

With podcasting software on your system, it is also possible that the other software is causing issues with the audio chain.

You may not realize that Windows/Teams actually support two different audio devices, the standard and communication devices. They are kept separate to keep system sounds separate from system sounds. For example, I can play Spotify through my system speakers while being on a Teams call with completely separate audio streams

While you are blaming everything on Teams, remember that MILLIONS of folks are using Teams daily to make calls with minimal to no issues. 

You may want to try a mobile device and see what type of audio response you would have.

[#5]

To @Nonononono2285 , as  @jangliss  said " This page is the tech community pages. While you will likely find folks providing support and hints/tips/guides, we'll likely be unable to fix your audio issues.".

As such this is not Microsoft Support, if uncertain please read Microsoft Tech Community Guidelines - Microsoft Community Hub.

"It boggles the mind that this is support for a paid product. "

This is not the support page for a paid product, it's a community for entusiasts. For support please contact your Microsoft Partner or Contact Microsoft Office Support. You can also sign in to Microsoft 365 with your Microsoft 365 admin account, and select Support > New service request.

[#6 · Accepted solution]

@Nonononono2285 

I guess they've taken their leave based on the last sentence, but to clarify some things in case they decided to poke back in...

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> This page is the tech community pages. While you will likely find folks providing support and hints/tips/guides, we'll likely be unable to fix your audio issues.

Then it's a good thing this post is a tech support issue that effects only teams audio quality.

Actually, this page is not for tech support issues, I said you will find some folks providing support here, just because, but most are not Microsoft employees, most do it because they're good people, and it absolutely isn't the "official" support channels for Microsoft. I guess that might be why it's called "Tech Community." You will note on the very front page of the Teams tech community page is says:

> Use this space for how-to discussions and sharing best practices. If you're looking for technical support, visit Microsoft Answers.

So support can be officially found there, or as somebody else has pointed out, login to your Office365 admin portal, and click Support.

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> You mentioned recording podcasts you don't have any issues,

Incorrect. 

I said I had podcast-quality equipment. I said that in other programs that record, I had podcast-quality sound.  I never said anything about recording audio in programs that resulted in audio file production for post-processing. That's all you just making things up and assuming. Stop doing that, you know what assuming does. 

Nope, I simply misread what you wrote, rather than making things up. Easily done.

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To be pedantically clear, when I speak in other calling programs that record and transmit my voice in real time, or use discord in the browser for voice chat, this issue does not occur.

is that clear enough for you? Or are you going to try and "gotchya" me again by making leaps and assuming again? 

Ahh, well you didn't mention anything about using any other realtime streaming audio services, that would have been an assumption on my part if I had assumed you had. So thank you for clarifying that those work as expected.

> Teams echo testing and calls are all routed over the network/internet, this means it is dependent on the performance of your internet/network connection.

Dear me, I do hope my dedicated 1:1 gigabit connection can handle the data without packet loss. 

Ahh yes, fault me for misreading one sentence and tell me I'm making assumptions, then force me to make an assumption about your internet connection speed/quality.

Let's say you decided to come back, if you are the Teams administrator you can look at the call reports if you go to your user profile in the Teams admin center, turn on the call ID field, and then you can click on the call and then drill into the call details per person.  It might give you some feedback as to what is causing the quality issues.  If you are not the Teams administrator for your organization, then maybe talk to them.