I'm not talking about cross-game chatting.

My friends always opt to get multiplayer games on xbox360 because the voice quality for chatting on PS3 is f****' awful.  

I recently played some multiplayer on xbox360 at a buddy's place and the quality of chat is night and day compared to PS3.  Then I went back to my PS3 multiplayer, and I found out what they were talking about.  The chat is all hissy and my ears hurt.   I think most people end up muting everyone when playing online.

I also think poor chatting is also why multiplat games sell better on xbox than PS3 in the US.  I can't convince 4 of my buddies to get Battlefield 3 on PS3 and getting the xbox360 version instead.....

crappy mics

I think you are talking about games like call of duty. I shared the same opinion until I bought games like killzone 2, socom beta and tried chat on it. The voice chat quality on these games are way better than the normal voice chat in xbox 360.

It depends upon the mic sometimes though. But people never seem to complain about my chat quality even in call of duty lol. Socom 4 had amazing voice chat though.

PS3s don't come with standard mics. So the crappy $10 bargain bin mic that "serious" gamers buy end up sounding like you said.

you sir, need a new mic

I use my Turtle Beach headset when I play PS3 online and it's fine. Like everybody else has said, cheap-O headsets result in cheap sounds. Since PS3 is compatible with pretty much everything, there's not a particular standard. Of course, like I said, I haven't experienced any problems.

If everyone used the official headset or PSEye (Especailly the Eye), this wouldn't be a problem.

Play Socom confrontation and you'll see what I mean. That game came with the official headset and the majority of people you hear very clearly.

Yep cheap headsets, the main culprit being the ones with no noise cancellation. Thats where the hissing comes from, and every little sound in the background gets picked up.