VXi Envoy UC Review (With Speech Recognition)

We found the new VXi Envoy produced very reasonable accuracy at 98% but because of NaturallySpeaking accuracy gains and the doubled sampling rate of Ver. 11/12, many microphones, that we would normally consider inferior, now produce very reasonable accuracy. However, there is more to a good microphone than accuracy in a vacuum.

We tested the VXi Envoy UC dual speaker model because it includes high fidelity speakers. While that claim is technically true, we cannot recommend the stereo Envoy UC for anything that might approach serious music listening. Accuracy was acceptable and the unit works superbly with VoIP applications like Skype and Microsoft's Lync, which opens automatically when you press the telephone button. The built-in shielded USB soundcard is excellent and the unit even drops the speaker volume level by 50% when making or receiving a call. You can't argue about the price, style, versatility or manufacturer 2 year warrantee but from a speech recognition point of view, we cannot recommend it because the noise filtering was all but nonexistent. It appears that VXi tried to compensate by eliminating the upper midrange, as you can see from the following JPEG but from a practical point of view, it didn't work. The Envoy UC microphone element is so sensitive, that it can even pick up breathing although the optional windscreen helps. Accuracy also fell a bit below the VXi TalkPro UC1 microphone so for now, we will be recommending other VXi USB microphones including the USB1-3 and UC1-3 models.

Tom Hamilton
Nuance Gold Certified & BBB Accredited
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