[Macworld]

Post your comments for Plantronics Savi 440 wireless mic great for speech recognition on your Mac here

[aestival]

No bluetooth, no purchase -- sorry, but I have no time for developers who can't make their products work seamlessly with my Mac/iPhone/etc.

[DominikHoffmann]

aestival, on 10 January 2012 - 05:12 AM, said:

No bluetooth, no purchase -- sorry, but I have no time for developers who can't make their products work seamlessly with my Mac/iPhone/etc.

What I am wondering about is whether I can make it connect to my home phone system's base station (a Panasonic system), given that it uses DECT. In that case it would be a great product. Contrary to all the Bluetooth headsets I have used, our DECT handsets don't have any problems with signal quality, anywhere in our house. The effective range of the DECT radio in the handsets is much greater.

Of course, $280 is pretty steep.

[kirkmc]

aestival, on 10 January 2012 - 05:12 AM, said:

No bluetooth, no purchase -- sorry, but I have no time for developers who can't make their products work seamlessly with my Mac/iPhone/etc.

It has nothing to do with developers not making it work, it's about a better technology that makes speech recognition much better than with a Bluetooth mic.

[pawhite524]

Kirk,
Thanks for a very thorough review about this product.
Your mention of one aspect of using this product should, IMHO, be mentioned as a strong *Con* when you noted:
This microphone is somewhat finicky regarding the position of the boom and the microphone’s volume, and, when using it with Dragon Dictate, I found it best to use the program’s microphone setup tool to adjust the volume *before each dictation session* (emphasis mine).
This is a giant pain in the butt and one of the chief reasons I quit using Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) and Dragon Dictate (DD). This would occur when not using DNS for several hours while still open with microphone muted.
BTW- Still can't figure out why one needs an an earphone when using DD or DNS

[TPatrickH]

Kirk,

After reading your review I'm quite surprised at the rating of 4 mice out of 5. To me the fact that you have to run microphone calibration within Dragon Dictate before each session when using this microphone, no on/off switch for the microphone, and no volume controls for the microphone are all serious drawbacks. Especially the first one! As someone who uses speech recognition on a daily basis there is absolutely no way I would consider a microphone that forced me to go through microphone calibration every time prior to using the software. Besides the extra hassle that carries a high risk of eventually corrupting the voice profile if there’s too much inconsistency in the microphone signal. Lack of an on/off switch leading to extra battery drain is yet another hassle. so is the lack of volume controls.

As a user of speech recognition for almost 20 years now, out of necessity, I'll be the first to grant you high accuracy is important. But if you're going to be using a microphone on a regular basis that's only part of the picture. You need to look at everything in combination. And it's when looked at as a whole that this microphone falls short.

There's another factor to consider: technical support from the developer of Dragon Dictate (Nuance Communications Inc.) Should the user encounter difficulties. This is not a microphone on the developer's list of certified microphones for the software. Now, I realize that the Nuance recognition engine has reached the point where it can do a good job with almost any microphone. But I have been unable to find definitive statements regarding technical support and non-certified microphones on the website. Even if using a non-certified microphone isn't against the company's support policy, it's highly likely that the support to mission wouldn't be familiar enough with the microphone to be able to assist the customer in troubleshooting problems since the microphone is not on the list certified microphones. When you're talking about over $200 for microphone that needs to be considered as well.

There may be some who argue that if the recognition is better than the certified Bluetooth wireless microphone it's worth it. For some that may be true. But the question becomes how much better does it need to be to justify spending over $200 on a microphone with these various drawbacks. For example, let's say someone can get 99.4% accuracy with the Nuance certified Bluetooth headset (I usually get between 99.4 and 99.6% accuracy with that headset by the way.) And by switching to the headset in your review their accuracy goes up to 99.7%. That's an increase of between 1-4 words per thousand words dictated. Let's further suppose you were an extremely heavy user and dictated about 5000 words per day. That means by switching to to the headset in your review the increase in accuracy would be somewhere between 5-20 words spread out over the entire day. As you can see that's quite a range. Just saying a headset is great for speech recognition and more accurate than a Bluetooth headset isn't enough. There are many factors to consider. Given all that, I personally, just can't see a 4/5 mice rating.

[kirkmc]

TPatrickH, on 10 January 2012 - 12:10 PM, said:

Kirk,

After reading your review I'm quite surprised at the rating of 4 mice out of 5. To me the fact that you have to run microphone calibration within Dragon Dictate before each session when using this microphone, no on/off switch for the microphone, and no volume controls for the microphone are all serious drawbacks. Especially the first one! As someone who uses speech recognition on a daily basis there is absolutely no way I would consider a microphone that forced me to go through microphone calibration every time prior to using the software. Besides the extra hassle that carries a high risk of eventually corrupting the voice profile if there’s too much inconsistency in the microphone signal. Lack of an on/off switch leading to extra battery drain is yet another hassle. so is the lack of volume controls.

As a user of speech recognition for almost 20 years now, out of necessity, I'll be the first to grant you high accuracy is important. But if you're going to be using a microphone on a regular basis that's only part of the picture. You need to look at everything in combination. And it's when looked at as a whole that this microphone falls short.

There's another factor to consider: technical support from the developer of Dragon Dictate (Nuance Communications Inc.) Should the user encounter difficulties. This is not a microphone on the developer's list of certified microphones for the software. Now, I realize that the Nuance recognition engine has reached the point where it can do a good job with almost any microphone. But I have been unable to find definitive statements regarding technical support and non-certified microphones on the website. Even if using a non-certified microphone isn't against the company's support policy, it's highly likely that the support to mission wouldn't be familiar enough with the microphone to be able to assist the customer in troubleshooting problems since the microphone is not on the list certified microphones. When you're talking about over $200 for microphone that needs to be considered as well.

There may be some who argue that if the recognition is better than the certified Bluetooth wireless microphone it's worth it. For some that may be true. But the question becomes how much better does it need to be to justify spending over $200 on a microphone with these various drawbacks. For example, let's say someone can get 99.4% accuracy with the Nuance certified Bluetooth headset (I usually get between 99.4 and 99.6% accuracy with that headset by the way.) And by switching to the headset in your review their accuracy goes up to 99.7%. That's an increase of between 1-4 words per thousand words dictated. Let's further suppose you were an extremely heavy user and dictated about 5000 words per day. That means by switching to to the headset in your review the increase in accuracy would be somewhere between 5-20 words spread out over the entire day. As you can see that's quite a range. Just saying a headset is great for speech recognition and more accurate than a Bluetooth headset isn't enough. There are many factors to consider. Given all that, I personally, just can't see a 4/5 mice rating.

I found that while you don't _have_ to calibrate the mike each time you dictate, it does improve recognition a bit. I think this is the case for many headsets of this type, especially if you are wearing it just on one ear - it won't always be in the same location or at the same angle. It's not that recognition was bad when I didn't calibrate, but it was, sometimes, better when I did.

[pmak]

Mac software ("Spokes 1.0.1") is available from the Plantronics website.

[TPatrickH]

kirkmc, on 10 January 2012 - 10:02 AM, said:

aestival, on 10 January 2012 - 05:12 AM, said:

No bluetooth, no purchase -- sorry, but I have no time for developers who can't make their products work seamlessly with my Mac/iPhone/etc.

It has nothing to do with developers not making it work, it's about a better technology that makes speech recognition much better than with a Bluetooth mic.

Kirk,

Blanket statements like that can come back to bite you when it comes to microphones and speech recognition. Everyone's vocal characteristics are different. It's quite possible for someone to have worse recognition with the headset in your review then the Nuance Communications, Inc. certified Bluetooth headset (or some other Bluetooth headset for that matter). It's even possible depending, on the microphone, for someone to have better recognition with a Bluetooth headset versus a wired headset because of how the microphones each respond to their vocal characteristics. I've done enough speech recognition related technical support to see all of these scenarios play out. Maybe not with the particular microphone in your review. But there are no hard and fast rules. It's quite possible for example to have someone who cannot use a particular wired headset because of how it responds to them but be able to use a Bluetooth headset because of how it responds. Similarly, there might be someone out there who cannot use this headset but can use a Bluetooth headset, or vice versa.

It would have been much better to include a qualifier in your statement such as the words “in general”. Speech recognition technology can mean the difference between gainful employment and being stuck on disability benefits for some. So this is an area that I'm quite particular about.

[TPatrickH]

kirkmc, on 10 January 2012 - 12:25 PM, said:

TPatrickH, on 10 January 2012 - 12:10 PM, said:

Kirk,

After reading your review I'm quite surprised at the rating of 4 mice out of 5. To me the fact that you have to run microphone calibration within Dragon Dictate before each session when using this microphone, no on/off switch for the microphone, and no volume controls for the microphone are all serious drawbacks. Especially the first one! As someone who uses speech recognition on a daily basis there is absolutely no way I would consider a microphone that forced me to go through microphone calibration every time prior to using the software. Besides the extra hassle that carries a high risk of eventually corrupting the voice profile if there’s too much inconsistency in the microphone signal. Lack of an on/off switch leading to extra battery drain is yet another hassle. so is the lack of volume controls.

As a user of speech recognition for almost 20 years now, out of necessity, I'll be the first to grant you high accuracy is important. But if you're going to be using a microphone on a regular basis that's only part of the picture. You need to look at everything in combination. And it's when looked at as a whole that this microphone falls short.

There's another factor to consider: technical support from the developer of Dragon Dictate (Nuance Communications Inc.) Should the user encounter difficulties. This is not a microphone on the developer's list of certified microphones for the software. Now, I realize that the Nuance recognition engine has reached the point where it can do a good job with almost any microphone. But I have been unable to find definitive statements regarding technical support and non-certified microphones on the website. Even if using a non-certified microphone isn't against the company's support policy, it's highly likely that the support to mission wouldn't be familiar enough with the microphone to be able to assist the customer in troubleshooting problems since the microphone is not on the list certified microphones. When you're talking about over $200 for microphone that needs to be considered as well.

There may be some who argue that if the recognition is better than the certified Bluetooth wireless microphone it's worth it. For some that may be true. But the question becomes how much better does it need to be to justify spending over $200 on a microphone with these various drawbacks. For example, let's say someone can get 99.4% accuracy with the Nuance certified Bluetooth headset (I usually get between 99.4 and 99.6% accuracy with that headset by the way.) And by switching to the headset in your review their accuracy goes up to 99.7%. That's an increase of between 1-4 words per thousand words dictated. Let's further suppose you were an extremely heavy user and dictated about 5000 words per day. That means by switching to to the headset in your review the increase in accuracy would be somewhere between 5-20 words spread out over the entire day. As you can see that's quite a range. Just saying a headset is great for speech recognition and more accurate than a Bluetooth headset isn't enough. There are many factors to consider. Given all that, I personally, just can't see a 4/5 mice rating.

I found that while you don't _have_ to calibrate the mike each time you dictate, it does improve recognition a bit. I think this is the case for many headsets of this type, especially if you are wearing it just on one ear - it won't always be in the same location or at the same angle. It's not that recognition was bad when I didn't calibrate, but it was, sometimes, better when I did.

Kirk,

1) As written, your review does not make that clear. It makes it appear that adjusting the microphone before each session is a necessity.

2) Even with a headset microphone the microphone element is never in exactly the same position. I'll grant you it's going to be easier to get close enough to the same position with a headset microphone. I'll also grant that, due to the practice I've had over the years, it may be easier for me to get an over-the-ear headset in the same position each time (or close enough as to make no difference).

3) What I said before about the risk of corrupting the voice profile over time if you routinely make adjustments to the microphone input volume still holds true. You're far better off to only make changes if there is a very noticeable difference in accuracy between one session in the next. Even then you should stop and ask yourself whether it's the microphone position (and can therefore be readjusted), a change in the environment such as an external noise that wasn't present before (and can be eliminated), or changing vocal characteristics due to fatigue or illness. Most of the time you shouldn't make routine changes to the microphone input volume. Just take care to make sure your conditions are as consistent as possible between dictation sessions. Again, I speak as someone who has been doing this for a *long* time. All the way back to the days of DragonDictate for DOS. (Back then it was written without a space between the first 2 words.)