Echo in Headset: software and hardware solution

Previously we posted a nice article about echo and its causes.

There we tried to answer why headphones have echo and why audio echoes. (In a nutshell: slow internet, electromagnetic interference, physical damages — for more details please see the article).

Here we’d like to give some practical advice on how to cope with it and what to do.

Everyone hates echo

We went over forums, there are a lot, and everywhere the threads are emotional: from Help! to Hate! and it annoys / infuriates / enrages, you name it.

By the way, there are different opinions about what is worse — to hear your interlocutor echo or yourself. As for us, a terrible choice. God forbid.

Time to act

How do I stop my headset from echoing? How do I fix my echoing mic? — that’s two most popular searches in Google. We thoroughly inspected the top ten search engine results but found most of them lopsided. Our recommendation: to try both soft- and hardware approaches.

Software

For Windows and macOS users our piece of advice is quite usual: unplug-replug, audio troubleshooter, check the settings (both microphone and speaker), and audio driver as well. Sometimes it works so don't neglect it. Then try to defeat the echo should you use Softphone.Pro (you should!).

Open SIP settings, then tick Echo cancellation as shown below

If even this fails to bring improvement, go to the hard~~core~~ measures.

Hardware

Change the headset, change the audio card, change the PC. Let’s stick to the first two options.

First and foremost, take some other headset from colleagues, friends, or family members. If it works echoless, you found the culprit. The previous one was defective, change it and enjoy your calls.

It is also worth using a USB headset instead of 3.5mm-jacks or Bluetooth. If the budget allows, choose professional devices, they are usually durable and reliable. Softphone.Pro out of the box supports integration with Jabra, Leitner, Plantronics, and Yealink. Plus to echoless sound, it gives you call control via headset buttons like accept/decline, hold/unhold, and mute/unmute.

Integration with Jabra, Leitner, Plantronics, and Yealink out-of-the box

Last but not least, there is a lifehack on how to turn your jack-headset into USB and simultaneously change the sound card without disassembling your computer. We are talking about USB audio cards (also known as mini pc sound cards). They are quite cheap, cost about one Hamilton, sold on every Ebay… and often help too!