Why You Should Sound Good On Podcasts

Or...how to get the audience to not think that you are stupid!

Poor audio is frustrating, isn’t it? It’s why cinema’s spend a fortune on Dolby Theatre Sound…and one of the reasons it’s a better experience than watching a movie at home.

Imagine you’re tuning into a podcast. The topic is exactly what you’ve been looking for, the guest is a well-known expert in the field, and the conversation starts...but the sound quality is terrible. You can barely make out what’s being said due to the echo in the audio and their lack of tonality.

Suddenly, that expert doesn’t seem quite as credible, and before you know it, you’ve hit “pause” and moved on to another podcast. This is the power of good sound quality—it’s not just about technical polish; it actually impacts how an audience perceives the speaker.

Whether you're hosting a podcast or guesting on one, great audio doesn’t just make you sound clearer—it makes you sound smarter, more professional, and more trustworthy.

The Science of Cognitive Fluency

Research by Eryn J. Newman and Norbert Schwarz* highlighted the distorting impact sound quality has on how audiences perceive speakers. According to two studies, when audio is poor, listeners rate the speaker as less intelligent, competent, and likable—even when the content is identical to that of a high-quality recording!

This is due to cognitive fluency, the ease with which information is processed by the brain. When listeners struggle to hear clearly, their brain has to work harder to understand the message, leading them to subconsciously devalue the content and the speaker.

In one study, participants listened to identical scientific presentations, with the only difference being audio quality. Those who heard the poorer quality audio rated the speaker as less credible and the research as less important than those who heard the clearer version.

 "As soon as we reduced the audio quality, all of a sudden, the scientists and their research lost credibility." Norbert Schwarz

This study was focused on audio, but the broader implications are also for video quality, and the how clutters your background is.

“Because people are more sensitive to their processing experience than to where this experience comes from, they tend to misread difficulty in processing arising from incidental variables as bearing on the quality of the content of a message (e.g., Schwarz, 2015; Schwarz et al., 2016)”

How You Sound is How You Are 

When listeners tune into a podcast, they expect a level of professionalism that clear sound conveys. Crisp, clean audio signals that you take your interviews seriously and have invested in the right equipment, and learning how to use it. By contrast, poor audio quality can make even the most insightful discussion feel amateurish or unprepared, detracting from the content and reducing your credibility.

As the saying goes,  "how you do something is how you do everything"*

The logic of the listener, suffering from disrupted cognitive fluency, is that if you don't take the time and effort to sound good, then you probably won't take the time and effort to do great work for a client. 

Improves Comprehension and Retention

Audio clarity also impacts how well listeners comprehend and retain information. Remember sitting at the back of the class and not being able to hear the teacher? 

When sound quality is high, it allows listeners to easily grasp the nuances of speech—intonation, pauses, and emphasis—all of which are critical to conveying the message. As the research by Newman and Norbert Schwarz demonstrated poor audio 'disrupts cognitive flow,' or in other words, it makes concentrating for a long time hard and it is difficult to follow complex narratives or absorb detailed information. 

A lack of concentration is also why we need to wrap this information up in stories, but that is another topic altogether!

Keeps the Audience From Leaving

Listener fade is a big issue. Within 5 minutes upto 30% of listeners will stop listening. Clear audio reduces the likelihood that the listener will switch shows; how both the host and the guest sound are key factor in keeping audiences engaged over longer periods. When listeners have to strain to hear or decipher muffled words, it leads to cognitive overload, making the experience more taxing and less enjoyable.  High-quality audio keeps the listener relaxed and more receptive to the content. Just like in the movies!

Increases Accessibility for Everyone including AI

Good sound quality also enhances accessibility, particularly for listeners with hearing impairments or auditory processing difficulties. Crisp, clear audio makes it easier for all listeners to distinguish between different voices and follow the conversation, while reducing background noise helps everyone stay focused. This can be an important consideration if you are aiming for people who wear hearing aids.

High-quality sound also ensures that AI powered speech recognition and transcription software works accurately, benefiting those who rely on captions and transcripts to access content. Every podcaster creates show notes using tools like Otter.ai, or Co-Host which is embedded in buzz sprout for example. Apple now generates transcripts automatically, and of video players like Vimeo auto generate captions.

When you have clear audio, you give the AI the best chance of transcribing your words accurately so that they search engine optimisation benefits of being on a podcast can come into play.

Encourages Repeat Listens and Sharing

This is a big one, because this is a major reason why we guest on podcasts.  Podcasts with excellent sound quality are more likely to be shared by the host and listeners. In fact is the audio is too bad, then sometimes hosts will not even air the show!High-quality audio enhances the overall listening experience, making the podcast more enjoyable and professional. This leads to stronger listener retention and a higher likelihood of recommendations. On the other hand, poor audio can frustrate listeners, diminishing their likelihood to return or share the content with others.

Sound and the Fury

"The other thing is, is sound quality. I know everybody's probably saying this, but it's for real. If you show up without a mic and, and you've got your, your desktop, your laptop mic that's built in, you just sound like you're shouting in a storm cellar during a hailstorm half the time.

It irritates the listeners. They don't want to listen anymore. They turn off the show and tune it out. That's why there have been a few shows, a few episodes with bad mics that I simply did not air. "
J. Alex Greenwood.

 

Sounding Good is Simple and Low Cost

If you want to sound smarter, more likeable, and have more people share your story, you want to sound as clear and bright as you would if you were in the room. If you think about this another way, you wouldn't give a presentation at a conference without a microphone! It's simply science. 

The good thing is that audio quality does not have to be expensive, nor difficult. In the podcast guest blueprint we include lists of microphones costing less than $100, and explain if you should look for a dynamic or a condenser mic, a USB or an XLR mic. We also show the importance of microphone technique, which can be learnt in 5 minutes. Plus we show how other people set up their home recording kit.

Now you know the science, you know how to sound smarter on podcast interviews. 🎙️

Sources:
*Research by Eryn J. Newman and Norbert Schwarz*
* How we do something... is attributed to Martha Beck