Are you getting annoyed by hearing the double voice or your voice from your gaming headset? I’ve seen this on my Twitter handle that many people were questioning, “Why do I hear myself in my headset?”. So, I thought to resolve your issue in one beautiful blog post. I’m about to share with you some possible problems that could be yours. Here are some of them:

Contents of this Article

Why do I Hear Myself in My Headset?

You could be hearing your voice through a headset for a variety of reasons. Identifying and solving the problem is largely a process of trial and error. Fortunately, none of the common fixes is particularly difficult to implement and avoiding the frustration and distraction of the echo should prove well worth the effort.

1) Microphone Boost

Some sound cards employ a Windows feature called “Microphone Boost” that Microsoft reports may cause an echo in PC gaming headsets. To disable the setting:

  1. Return to the Sound window as described in the previous section.
  2. Click the “Recording” tab, and then right-click on your headset and select “Properties.”
  3. Click the “Levels” tab in the Microphone Properties window and uncheck the “Microphone Boost” tab.
  4. Click “Apply,” and then close the window.

Microsoft also reported that echo while hearing is caused by their windows feature, “Microphone Boost”. To disable this feature:

  1. Go to the start menu.
  2. Open “Control Panel”, “Hardware and Sound”, and then choose the “Sound” option.
  3. After opening the Sound option, select “Recording Tab”.
  4. Select your headset, then open “Properties”.
  5. Untick the “Microphone Boost” from the “Levels tab”.
  6. Apply and close to save the settings.

2) Problem on Receiver End

Your microphone does not even generate the most common and clear source of an echo. If the people you’re talking to have microphones and hear your voice through speakers, their microphones will pick up the echo from their speakers and give it back to you. A simple procedure is to ask your friend to turn off their speakers for a few seconds. If your friends’ speakers are causing the issue, request that they step away from the speakers, turn down the volume, or use headsets instead.

3) Conflict in Devices

Nowadays, your laptops and webcams have already installed microphone. You need to check if your system utilises one or more input sound devices, then it can generate an echo effect. Due to this, double recording devices activated simultaneously create the sound of yourself and send it back to you. Follow the same procedure, go to the start menu, control panel, hardware and sound. Click on “Recording Tab” after opening the sound window. Disable any other recording device that is not in your use.

4) Mic Monitor

Some headphones intentionally give some of the user’s speech back to the headset to understand how noisy they would feel to everyone. There could be a small pause in your speech and the sound being played back, depending on the Internet access and the programs you are using. 

Return to the Microphone Properties window for your headset as described in the previous section. Click the “Listen” tab and make sure that the check box next to “Listen to this device” is left blank. If it is checked, click the box once to remove the checkmark, then click “Apply” and close the window.

Open your microphone properties by following the same procedure in the above paragraph. Click on “Listen Tab” and see if the “Listen to this device” option is marked as a check. You need to remove the checkmark and left blank that tab, apply the settings, and close the window to save the settings.