Philips 9172 Boundary Layer Conference Microphone for Digital Conference Recording Systems (LFH9172/00)

My organisation uses VoIP applications (Nefsis, Skype, and now Lync) quite a bit to cut down on tel-co phone costs, but getting a proper microphone for the participants has always been problematic. Near the end of last year we started using a simple USB speaker/microphone, but in a meeting of only six persons, individual speakers sometimes had to move closer to, or in some cases actually hold the mic in order to be heard. We even tried a couple Shure microphones via an amp with slightly disastrous results and poor recording range.

To be honest i was desperate for results, so when i saw this Phillips mic and its simple hype i certainly hemmed and hawed at the price tag, but bit the bullet and bought it (it was not reviewed at the time). My initial tests when i received it were fairly disappointing (in hindsight i must have had some advanced volume setting off or lowered), but i tried again later on and was pleasantly surprised with it's range and quality. In one of our...Read more

Based on the name of the product, this microphone seems to be specifically designed for the Philips Digital Conference Recording Systems. But, I thought I would try it anyway. I was (and still am) looking for a good omnidirectional microphone to use with a Cisco 9951 phone. Unfortunately, the mic didn't pick up very well. I also tried pluggin it into a laptop, but the sound quality was poor there, too. I sent it back.