Manual Make it yours
Choose your microphone
Pick which input device Neato Echo listens to, and why the built-in one is often the better choice.
By default Neato Echo uses whatever microphone Windows is using. If that's the wrong one — or if you've plugged in something better — you can choose explicitly.
Choosing a device
Open Settings, then Preferences, and find Input Device.
Pick a specific microphone from the list, or leave it on System Default to follow whatever Windows is set to. The app confirms the current choice underneath — "Using: …" — and marks your machine's own microphone as (Built-in).
Prefer Built-in Microphone
There's a separate setting called Prefer Built-in Microphone, and the app is blunt about why: "External microphones may cause latency or reduced transcription quality."
That reads backwards if you've bought a good microphone, so it's worth explaining. The problem is usually not the microphone — it's the link. Bluetooth headsets in particular switch to a low-quality, low-bandwidth mode when they're being used as an input device, which is exactly what speech recognition is worst at. Your laptop's built-in microphone, unglamorous as it is, is a clean wired input at full bandwidth.
Rules of thumb:
| Setup | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Bluetooth headset (AirPods and similar) | Prefer the built-in microphone. Use the headset for listening |
| Wired USB or XLR microphone | Use it — this is the case where an external device is genuinely better |
| Wired earbuds with an inline mic | Either. Try both and compare |
| Laptop on its own | Built-in, which is what you'll get anyway |
My headset sounds thin or quiet while I dictate
This is the most common surprise, and it is worth understanding because the fix is quick and the cause is not obvious.
What you notice: the moment you start dictating (or recording a meeting), the music, video, or call you are listening to gets quieter and thinner, losing its bass and fullness. The instant you stop, the rich sound comes back.
Why it happens: most headsets — Bluetooth earbuds, USB headsets, and combined "headphones + microphone" devices like a dock headset — are a single piece of hardware with both a speaker and a microphone. When any app opens that microphone, the headset switches its whole self into a "communications" or "headset" mode built for phone calls: mono, narrow, and quiet. It switches back to full, rich stereo the moment the microphone is released. Neato Echo is only turning the microphone on to hear you; the headset is the thing choosing to downgrade its own sound while the mic is in use.
This is why it happens with plain dictation as well as meeting recording — both open the microphone — and why changing Windows sound settings does not stop it. It is the headset's own behavior, shared by nearly every combined headset, and no app can override it.
The fix: listen on one device, talk into another. Keep enjoying audio on the headset, but have Neato Echo listen to a different microphone so the headset's mic is never opened and its sound never downgrades.
Open the microphone setting
Settings, then Preferences, then Input Device.
Pick a microphone that is not your headset
Choose your laptop's built-in microphone (marked (Built-in), often named something like Microphone Array) instead of the headset. If you have a separate USB or desk microphone, that works too.
Check the level meter
Say a few words and watch the meter move, so you know the new microphone is the one being heard.
With the headset's microphone left alone, its speakers stay in full-quality stereo the entire time you dictate or record. The built-in microphone is also usually better for transcription anyway, for the reasons in the section above.
If no microphones are listed
The app will say "No microphones were detected" and point you at Windows settings. That's a Windows-level problem rather than a Neato Echo one — see my microphone isn't working, which covers the Windows microphone privacy settings.
If the list is populated but you get "Unable to access microphone," it's a permission rather than a device problem, and the same article covers it.
Meetings use the same input
The microphone you choose here is the one used for dictation and for recording your side of a meeting. Capturing the other participants is a separate mechanism entirely — see capturing both sides of the call.
Related
Still need help?
Write to [email protected] with your Windows version, your Neato Echo version (Settings → System), and what you were doing. A person reads every message.