HACKER Q&A
📣 miohtama

Why is Zoom audio quality better?


I am regularly having video and audio calls with participants all around the world, often having participants from three different continents on the same call. I have experience on Google Meet, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp and many others.

Though I have had a subjective experience that Zoom has better audio quality, yesterday we did a test by having the same meeting in both Meet and Zoom. All participants agreed the audio quality was better for them (even with video turned on).

Why is this? Are Zoom's codecs superior? Does Zoom have an internal network which routes better than public internet WebRTC? Do they have better voice picking and echo cancellations?

  👤 user_agent Accepted Answer ✓
What? After getting a proper audio setup for videoconferencing (studio quality) my jaw dropped on the floor when I realized how BAD Zoom's audio quality is. It's comparable to a 128 Kbps mp3 file. The only thing they do well is noise cancellation. That whole Zoom thing is built for people using their MacBooks with built-in microphones and speakers, and these are THE LOWEST quality possible. A set of those internal peripheral costs maybe $4. I was expecting something close to a RedBook (uncompressed 16 bit 44.1 kHz) quality investing money in a good microphone and an audio interface. Money wasted.

A lot of WebRTC software made by hobbyists has usually much better quality than Zoom has.

PS: Zoom also sucks in their over-compressed 720p. I use a Canon camera with a separate HDMI->USB encoder and what I get straight from that setup vs what Zoom can handle are two different worlds. Shame, again.

PS2: I've been using videoconferencing tools since 1995 (I was also selling high end ones like Cisco) for a long time. The quality delivered by them has been very good for a really long time. Zoom isn't even comparable to something like mid-range Polycom ;/

I use Zoom a lot, but let's be honest - the only good things about it is price and reliability (and good noise canceling tailored up to shitty laptop microphones). I tell you, guys, the Zoom people don't want to pay for bandwidth...

I can understand, though, that someone who uses only a laptop for calls might be in love with Zoom. Myself I'll rather zoom out of that product toward something better focused on quality, especially audio. Immersive experience is important to me. I don't expect that much. Just a stable 1080p (sharp!) and a RedBook audio.

(before anyone is going to ask: I sit on a 1 Gbps fiber... And my PC is an i7 with 16GB RAM)