Antlion ModMic 5 review: The best headset mic you can get, but is it worth it? - sandersduritat

IDG / Hayden Dingman

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

• The omnidirectional mike is indefinite of the best-sounding headset mics I've ever utilized
• Fairly easy to attach, and also to polish of
• More convenient than using a desk microphone for sound chat

Cons

• Running two cables to your PC is plainly to a lesser extent elegant than one
• Unsheathed 3.5mm overseas telegram has a tendency to hum in certain setups
• More high-ticket than entire entry-flush gambling headsets

Our Finding of fact

If you want the best audio fidelity, attaching a ModMic 5 to your studio headphones might comprise a complete option. An inelegant setup process and some cut corners reserve information technology back slightly though.

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"Why buy a headset when you could just buy a great couple of headphones and a good mike for the same price?" So goes the conventional wisdom in comment sections around the humans, all time someone dares to suggest that a play headset might not be so unfavourable a purchase.

But what if the self-professed audiophiles are right? And what if you could scram the same form cistron as a headset, but with any top-tier brace of headphones? Wouldn't that be a better deal?

We went hands happening with the ModMic to check.

(See our roundup of best play headsets  for a thorough comparison of headset solutions .)

Hand in hand

ModMic isn't new by whatsoever means. Since 2011, Antlion Audio has done unrivaled thing and done information technology well: It's allowed gamers to take their high-end headphones, confiscate a microphone unofficially, and thus get great vocalize with (most of) the public lavatory of a votive gambling headset.

It works exactly as you'd anticipate, basically. The ModMic costs $69.95 on Amazon and arrives in a tiny little box. After all, it's just a microphone. Nothing too surprising hither. Inside the box is a soft carrying case, and inside the caseful is the mic itself, on with a bunch up of cables.

IDG / Hayden Dingman

You then take the ModMic and affix it to the side of your headphones, probably the left ear as is textbook. A number of 3M double-sided tape measure holds it in set back, and…that's IT. Your headphones are now a headset.

IT's a somewhat permanent installation, which can be a little nightmarish when you're talking about audiophile headphones. The Sennheiser HD 280s I had prevarication about aren't even that nice, merely I did hesitate American Samoa I affixed the ModMic to the outside. "Am I okay with this? Forever?"

The good news is that IT's reasonably imperishable. The ModMic is actually two pieces. The larger piece is the mic itself, along with the boom arm. But the part that's actually affixed to your headphones is just a small disc, almost the size of it of a dime. The microphone attaches magnetically to the disc, so you're free to take off the bulk whenever you'd same. All that's odd is the Weird magnetic rivet on the outside (as seen in the image below).

IDG / Hayden Dingman

The next gainsay is cable television routing. With a headset, you unremarkably receive both your audio frequency and mic cables conjunct into one, leastways until they reach the PC. With the ModMic, you obviously don't have that sumptuousness. Instead you run a endorsement 3.5mm cable from the ModMic to your reckoner, with the option to enclose a muffle toggle midmost.

Our ModMic critique social unit came supplied with some cable sheathes, systematic to wrapthe ModMic and headphone cables together. The problem is that the HD 280s use a coiled, telephone set-style cable for nearly of their length, so I was alone able to wrap up the top part efficaciously. The result was a bit of a mess, aesthetically. With other headphones that expend stereotyped cables, you'd probably attain a relatively smooth consequence.

Still, overall, a dedicated headset is going to profits down aesthetically. No surprise there—that's why they exist. Combining headphones and a microphone into a single twist allows for a Sir Thomas More elegant and efficient design.

Testing, testing

But what well-nig performance? After all, that's what hoi polloi are talking about when they say you should separate your headphone and mike purchases. The theory is that you could buy out audiophile-rate equipment in some categories for the price of a unmarried, moderately headset.

IDG / Hayden Dingman

Healthy, my HD 280 headphones are dandy. I can attest thereto. Especially for the price.

The construction is beautiful flimsy, and they're non the all but well-off pair of headphones I own, just $100 for studio-mark sound? They hands down beat out any $100 headset I've used, that's for sure. Yes, even our best overall pick, the HyperX Cloud Alpha.

The ModMic is headphones-religious person. Other fairly low-priced and popular choices include Sound-Technica's ATH-M50xRemove non-product associate, the upgraded Sennheiser HD 380 In favour ofTake away not-product link, and Sony's MDR7506Slay non-product link. And obviously there's a whole litany of more expensive options out there.

Regardless, the ModMic will run you an extra $70. That's more than entire launching-level headsets, ilk HyperX's Dapple Stinger and the Razer Kraken. So is information technology worth it?

Information technology certainly sounds best. First, I should mention that the ModMic actually has ii microphones. Yelled environment? There's a unidirectional mic with a cardioid pickup pattern, which is what you'll find on well-nig headsets. Just for quieter environments, there's what ModMic price a "studio-caliber" omnidirectional mic.

IDG / Hayden Dingman

Number 1 awake, the unidirectional microphone. It sounds the like a headset mic, yeah. A good headset microphone, cardinal with a broader frequency reproduction than the tinny, telephone set-quality mics you get along with certain headsets. And to be honest, it's the one I'd probably advocate for gaming—it's trusty, it's clear, and it'll thin back along the noise.

The omnidirectional microphone is the one audio purists would use to justify their ModMic purchase though. IT sounds great. I in reality went in blind, having not looked at the symbols on the ModMic. I didn't know which transcription was through with the omnidirectional and which the unidirectional. I immediately gravitated towards the omnidirectional though. It's heater, livelier, with a richer browse of tones reproduced.

Of course, IT's also an omnidirectional mike, which means it's clanking As Scheol. And I'm not convinced IT works great mere inches from your look—I picked up a circle more breath noise in the microphone than I'd be comfortable with my friends hearing. You could run off the ModMic through a noise logic gate or what-have-you but at that point we're really acquiring into the weeds, as far equally what you could do. Information technology's a microphone, and you can answer each the wonted microphone things.

IDG / Hayden Dingman

My biggest complaint though is the cabling. Considering the ModMic 5 costs $70, you'd think IT could let in some properly protected extension cables. Alas, no—the ModMic picks up a net ton of buzzing if you have, for instance, an unshielded power cablegram nearby. Unmatched solvent: Spring for a USB audio adapter, which should slash on around of the noise from nominal head-facing lawsuit ports. And of course, there's a ModMic-branded one. Favorable.

You can also replace the ModMic's enclosed 3.5mm cable with a properly protected extension, but again: IT seems like the ModMic should already go with one. A weird set down to abbreviate corners on an otherwise premium mike.

Bottom line

I'm mangled. If you're an audio snot and have an expensive pair of headphones kick around, the ModMic could be engrossing. IT's certainly a better solution than using a Depressed Sweet sand verbena/Abominable snowman Oregon another desk mic as your vocalism chaffer input, specially in noisy environments. The ModMic is probably the best way to play Battlefield if you assert on playacting Field of battle with a $600 pair of headphones or whatever.

ME, though? I'd probably take the convenience of a headset, and I say that as soul WHO generally cares a wad about audio fidelity. Headsets have come through a long-handled style in the ultimo five years Beaver State so, and while we're still not rocking studio apartment-quality sound at the $150 tier, it's leastways close enough to make the convenience of a single, dedicated device appealing, especially with the ModMic a pretty pricey $70 gain. That's a great deal to remuneration evenhanded so your friends can hear the flush timbre of your beautiful, radio-ready vocalisation.

So yes, unidentified internet commenter: You can get better healthy by purchasing a great pair of headphones and a separate microphone. Whether that's worth your time and try though? More debatable.

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• Computers and Peripherals
• Headsets

Hayden writes just about games for PCWorld and doubles American Samoa the resident physician Zork enthusiast.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/402353/antlion-modmic-5-review-the-best-headset-mic-you-can-get-but-is-it-worth-it.html

Posted by: sandersduritat.blogspot.com

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