# Respeaker which array is the BEST?
**URL:** https://community.openconversational.ai/t/respeaker-which-array-is-the-best/4929
**Category:** Picroft
**Created:** [October 26, 2018, 12:25pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/respeaker-which-array-is-the-best/4929 "2018-10-26T12:25:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ebi](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/ebi)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2018, 12:25pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/respeaker-which-array-is-the-best/4929/1 "2018-10-26T12:25:15Z")
Hey there,
I want to build a Picroft for testing and if I like it, i want to build one for every room. My main goal is to control my smarthome devices by voice. Well, I mostly want to control openHAB with Picroft.
I also want to build them in different shapes, like a ceiling cube, that includes Picroft, some beefy speakers and smart room lighting…
But for now I’m still wondering which mic array to get. As I see it, there are three (circular) Respeaker Arrays to choose from:
ReSpeaker 4-Mic Array for Raspberry Pi (25 bucks)
ReSpeaker 6-Mic Circular Array (40 bucks)
ReSpeaker Mic Array v2.0 with XVF-3000 (70 bucks)
So the million dollar question is, which ones the best? I really like that they all got RGB LED. I think the cheaper two are not very different, except that one uses 4 and the other uses 6 mics.
What really interests me, is how much better the hardware accelerated one with the XVF-3000 chip really is, is it worth the premium I would pay? Did anyone of you compare it with one of the cheaper options?
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### Author:  [@mycroft](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/mycroft)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/respeaker-which-array-is-the-best/4929/2 "2018-10-26T15:59:46Z")
They also have a 2 mic version for (15 bucks) at Amazon. I haven’t tried any respeaker products but others have said they work out of the box.
[https://www.google.com/search?q=ReSpeaker+2-Mics&num=20&client=tablet-unknown&prmd=svin&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjBmIL1t6TeAhXqrVQKHfjzCCMQ\_AUIESgB&biw=601&bih=962](https://www.google.com/search?q=ReSpeaker+2-Mics&num=20&client=tablet-unknown&prmd=svin&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjBmIL1t6TeAhXqrVQKHfjzCCMQ_AUIESgB&biw=601&bih=962)
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### Author:  [@Dominik](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/Dominik)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/respeaker-which-array-is-the-best/4929/3 "2018-10-26T18:06:41Z")
> [@ebi](#):
>
> I think the cheaper two are not very different, except that one uses 4 and the other uses 6 mics.
> What really interests me, is how much better the hardware accelerated one with the XVF-3000 chip really is, is it worth the premium I would pay? Did anyone of you compare it with one of the cheaper options?
Advantages of multi-mic arrays are echo-cancellation and beamforming for better voice-recognition.
You can do echo-cancellation with the 4-mic linear array and the 6-mic array (the 2-mic and 4-mic can’t do EC as they have no hardware loopback). All versions with with at least 4 mics can do beamforming, but the cheaper arrays without hardware acceleration require additional configuration in the audio subsystem of your operation system.
When you want to use these mic-arrays with Picroft you must the Debian-Stretch version (which is currently still “unstable”) as only this support Pulseaudio 9.0 with the proper echo-cancellation algorithms and beamforming support.
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### Author:  [@j1nx](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/j1nx)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/respeaker-which-array-is-the-best/4929/4 "2018-10-26T18:20:20Z")
What @Dominik says…
Both the 4-mic array as well as the 6-mic array (both circular) uses the same driver and work perfectly. I have the 4-Mic circular array, but will eventually switch to the 6-mic for the reasons @Dominik already hightlighted. (6-mic came out just a few weeks after I bought the 4-mic. Doh!)
They pick up “hey mycroft” from at least 25 ft away, around the corner of a wall, with a normal speaking voice.
Really worth the bucks if you ask me.
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### Author:  [@shivasiddharth](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/shivasiddharth)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2018, 12:58pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/respeaker-which-array-is-the-best/4929/5 "2018-11-29T12:58:37Z")
@j1nx, I have the Respeaker-4 mic hat and really struggling to get mycroft working. Is pulseaudio a must or can you get it working just with alsa ?
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### Author:  [@dodrian](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/dodrian)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2018, 2:05pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/respeaker-which-array-is-the-best/4929/6 "2018-11-29T14:05:14Z")
@shivasiddharth
I have been trying to get my respeaker 2-mic phat to work, with some success. It required installing the drivers from the [seeed github](https://github.com/respeaker/seeed-voicecard), editing the mycroft.conf file to use the correct card in aplay and mpg123, and setting the default soundcards in `/etc/asound.conf`. Then for some reason after the pi boots I need to run `~/mycroft-core/start-mycroft.sh voice` and reconnect to `mycroft-cli-client` before mycroft will listen for the wake word. I haven’t yet figured out why the last step is necessary.
More info on this thread:
> [@Mic doesn't work on startup - only after running mycroft-mic-test](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/mic-doesnt-work-on-startup-only-after-running-mycroft-mic-test/5236/2):
>
> OK, I’ve figured out how to get audio to work properly: First I edited /etc/mycroft/mycroft.conf: "play\_wav\_cmdline": "aplay -Dhw:1 %1", "play\_mp3\_cmdline": "mpg123 -a hw:1 %1", "enclosure": { "platform": "picroft" }, "tts": { "mimic": { "path": "/home/pi/mycroft-core/mimic/bin/mimic" } }, "ipc\_path": "/ramdisk/mycroft/ipc/" For some reason thing fixed the “sing me a song” skill, but not regular talking. Then I followed the instructions from th…
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### Author:  [@ebi](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/ebi)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2018, 2:13pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/respeaker-which-array-is-the-best/4929/7 "2018-11-29T14:13:34Z")
Hey Guys, thank you for your replies!
I postponed my whole picroft project for now. After I learned that STT is done on HOME and not locally it is no longer an option for me.
There is some talk here on the forums about a potential personal mycroft server. As soon as this becomes reality, I will be back, because I really want to voice control my home. But I will not have any cloud listening in my home.
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### Author:  [@Jarbas\_Ai](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/Jarbas_Ai)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2018, 3:25pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/respeaker-which-array-is-the-best/4929/8 "2018-11-29T15:25:24Z")
[https://github.com/MycroftAI/mycroft-core/pull/1370](https://github.com/MycroftAI/mycroft-core/pull/1370) you can host your own stt
but id still use home for now, for accuracy reasons
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### Author:  [@shivasiddharth](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/shivasiddharth)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2018, 3:56pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/respeaker-which-array-is-the-best/4929/9 "2018-11-30T15:56:46Z")
@dodrian, I believe, Mycroft does not have a systemd service setup to start mycroft on boot. You can create a systemd service file like this [https://github.com/shivasiddharth/Assistants-Pi/blob/mycroft/systemd/mycroft.service](https://github.com/shivasiddharth/Assistants-Pi/blob/mycroft/systemd/mycroft.service) to start mycroft on boot.