I've made sure my Cortana and Privacy settings were all correct but no luck. Also Cortana doesn't speak either. The only time I can get her to speak is when I test the name pronunciation.

Try to disable all other recording devices in Sound options:

I've got the same problem. Any clues?

Doesen't work for me at all. (Location is US and language EN)

Having tested cortana on my PC (not VM - i heard VMs sometimes can cause issues with cortana, although i haven't really seen any myself) there's a few things you can look at:

1. Make sure you have it all set to english (united states) - that means keyboard, Date / Time Format, location and current language for non-Unicode programs
2. By default Cortana is set to not respond to 'Hey Cortana' - and in this case you need to click small microfone icon in the cortana 'Ask me anything' search box and talk right after she answers (speak too soon and she won't hear you, wait a moment too long and she'll disregard you) - Or change the setting to make her active when you say 'Hey Cortana' (but this is still a bit broken as she often won't notice i said it)
3. try typing a question ilke 'show me the weather for  today' in the cortana search box - if there's a problem she'll tell you  she can't do that yet and ask you to come back after a few updates. In this case recheck 1 and 2 - if she answers the typed message then try speaking slower and calmly
4. if all else fails, try rebooting your PC without any startup program you installed - there might be a bug where one of those causes issues - if this is the case try to figure out which one and report it to Microsoft for a future fix

I did a clean install of build 9926 on spare ssd and was told by windows it didn't work in my country (uk). but I am glad in a way as I don't need another women telling what mistakes I make

same hear, bought a new mic after getting build 9926, works fine with the comupter but Cortana doesn't hear me.

When I check my mic in the sounds box, it works, the green bar goes way up

When I enter the mic setup, it doesn't bar doesn't more at all

and on my laptop the mic does work but after a few minutes I lose all sound on it, so both my systems won't let me talk to  or hear Cortana :(

Same issue here. I' m new to the technical preview feedback so I'm wondering - Is reporting this here good enough, or do we need to get 100 more people on the thread before it's looked at?

I had the same problem.  There are a couple of threads on this issue already. Please refer to my thread:

'Cortana does not speak or listen'.

The solution in the tread above has worked for several people.  This really does sound like the same problem.

On Thu, 19 Feb 2015 02:04:36 +0000, loadedmod wrote:

Is reporting this here good enough

Reporting a problem only here is really never good enough. If you're only
going to report a problem in 1 place, then that 1 place should be the
feedback app in the OS i

I had this on the new build i just installed. I had an extra microphone input in recording panel. Making the one I wanted default worked, and Cortana can hear me now