poor speech quality with skype

[robert]

Hi there,
I am jointly working with some guys in India. (I am based in Switzerland)

The sound quality using skype is very poor and borders to unusable.
I had that accepted as a fact of life..

When we were using android however, the sound was very good..
So it looks as it is not a fact of life but of the settings involved..

Now my question:
What can I do to improve the the sound quality when using skype on ubuntu?

My partner is using a Ubuntu 12.04 Box. I am using 13.10

I would not mind buying extra hardware (if the price is reasonable) for 
my indian partner..

thanks for your answer
robert