Blue Snowball or a Blue yeti are excellent mics, depending on how much disposable cash you have to throw at them.

I personally use the snowball, but want to upgrade to the yeti as soon as I can.

As for the headphones, I use the Audio-Technica ATH-m50x, excellent as far as sound quality goes, and you can rotate the earcups to cover only 1 ear, but still be able to use both if you want to watch a movie or something.

When I'm working I need to be able to hear what's happening, so I keep 1 earcups on and the other rotated (I try to alternate them to rest 1 ear at the time) so I can hear if there's a delivery, or someone is knocking at my door, but when it's night and I want to relax, I put both on and the soundproofing is awesome.

https://www.bluedesigns.com/products/snowball/
https://www.bluedesigns.com/products/yeti/
https://www.audio-technica.com/cms/headphones/99aff89488ddd6b1/

In alternative, you can use open back studio headphones, and they just aren't soundproofed, you can hear pretty much everything.

https://www.audio-technica.com/cms/headphones/996daf096c12ea16/
https://en-us.sennheiser.com/audiophile-headphones-high-end-around-ear-hd-700

I'm not a fan of open back headphones, and they tend to be more expensive, but that's an option too.

Now, here's the thing, while a good pair of headphones is nice, the only thing you really need is a decent mic, so you can use your phone's earplugs if you like them, just select the external mic (e.g. the yeti) on discord's input settings, and go with whatever you're comfortable with for output.

The important thing is that others can hear you, so as long as you can hear them, whatever works.

But echo is the single most annoying thing that could happen on a voip conversation, so use some kind of headphones or earplugs anyways.

Hope this helps.

Ibura wrote: »

I am looking for the best way to be able to talk in Discord without having to wear a headphone that covers both ears since I need to stay aware of my environment at home too.

Regarding this, specifically - open backed headphones will allow you to hear your game as well as what's going on around you.

The tradeoff is that you lose isolation and there is some sound leakage, but I'm a big fan of not being surprised by things I can't hear just because I had headphones on.

Might check out LG Blue Tooth Headsets (around $45 and up). You can leave one ear bud out, I do this all the time. You might also need a Blue Tooth adapter for your PC, usually around $15.

Many people mistakenly think that a full headset will cut off noise from the rest of the house.

If you don’t act like a 17 year old kid drunk with power because they suddenly have sole control over the car volume, then you should be just fine with a full headset.

Just set the game sounds to high enough to keep track of in-game explosions etc, have the voice volume set to a conversational level, and the rest of your house won’t need to overcome the game.

It’s a headset, not a cone of silence.

Cryptical, I understand what you are saying, but I doubt I will hear my small dog scratch the door when he wants to go out, and he doesn't bark for that. And too much scratching doesn't make my door look any better in the end, heh. I like to be there when he needs me
And it is spring, often little birds dive against the windows then, if I go out in time and hold them in my hands to keep them warm, they often regain consciousness and fly away after some time. I even held a young spotted woodpecker once, and he made it, such beautifull birds!