MAONO USB/XLR Podcast Dynamic Microphone, Studio Mic Kit with Volume Control, Shock Mount, Pop Filter, Ideal for Vocal, Instruments Recording, Voice Over, Live Streaming (HD300T)

Best mic at this price point hands down
Review for ‘MAONO USB/XLR Podcast Dynamic Microphone, Studio Mic Kit with Volume Control, Shock Mount, Pop Filter, Ideal for Vocal, Instruments Recording, Voice Over, Live Streaming (HD300T)’This mic was only $50 AND it came with an adjustable stand, pop filter, and shock mount. Buying the accessories separately would cost more than the mic! I didn’t try the stand as I purchased a heavy duty SnakeClamp and 5/8″ adapter (check them out, seriously, SnakeClamp is amazing!) for my setup which supports the weight of the mic and my headphones.This is a dynamic mic so it is rather quiet (not much gain) but that means it also doesn’t pick up background noise as much as a condenser mic would. Additionally it has a supercardioid polar pattern to reject off axis coloration, especially from the sides. Those two aspects combined make it great for rooms where you’ll have a little background noise, especially from the side. In my case I have a window mounted A/C unit that I must run continuously in the summer because someone thought a split level house in a desert wouldn’t be a problem :/ I still hear the A/C when I am not talking, but it’s presence is reduced and since I’m directly in front of the mic my voice completely overshadows it. Discord and Zoom both have background noise cancellation which eliminates it in those applications.Although the sample rate is 44.1/48kHz (the minimum you’d find on any mic worth buying) this is more than enough for voice chat, streaming, etc. Since the mic’s bit depth is 16 bit, at 44.1kHz sample rate, the bit rate is 705.6Kbps. At 48kHz sample rate, the bit rate is 768Kbps. An unboosted Discord server’s voice channels max out at 96Kbps and a fully boosted one at 384Kbps which is still well below the mic’s bit rate output. From what I can find, a Zoom Pro account can have a sample rate as high as 48kHz and this mic reaches that. Basically, unless you’re planning on recording in a lossless format such as FLAC, the “low” sample rate of this mic is a non-issue.The bit depth of 16 bits is bare minimum for audio accuracy, and is a minor negative, but again outside of recording this still doesn’t have much of an impact as at 24 bits, the bit rate would be 1152Kbps and for anything realtime over the Internet it would be compressed.Though it comes with a pop filter, it’s a little bit janky TBH. It works, but does take some fiddling to get set up correctly. Protip: insert the mic into the shock mount, attach the pop filter to the little metal arm, THEN insert the arm+filter assembly into the shock mount.The mic allows for connecting via USB or XLR, and though I haven’t tried it, I saw in reviews that both can be used simultaneously if you needed that for some reason. Unlike most (all?) of the other USB/XLR combo mics this one is USB-C on the mic end. The best benefit of this dual output is you can connect the mic directly to your PC via USB, but you also have the option to run it through a mixer or audio interface. So if you’re on the go you can connect to your laptop with USB, then at home plug in through XLR. This also opens the door to exploring the world of digital audio if you decide to purchase a mixer/audio interface later. Technically it can connect directly to PC with an XLR to 1/8″ adapter cable, but you’ll have to basically swallow the mic and max the gain on your PC to hear it. I suspect this would be true for any dynamic mic.tl;dr is that this is probably the best mic you can get at this price point if your use case is streaming, gaming, voice chat, or any other realtime online voice application. The USB+XLR output provides outstanding flexibility and opens the door for anyone new to the audio space to get their feet wet with a mixer or audio interface. If you intend to do recording this is not a good fit. Consider the ‘audio-technica ATR2100x-USB’ which is a very comparable mic, but with higher bit depth and sample rates.

Good, Cheap Mic with Decent, Cheap Accessories
I’m going to be honest, I mostly got this Mic because a dynamic mic with such a robust accessory package for this price is basically unheard of.Overall, it’s been good – though, if you’re kind of soft-spoken, keep in mind that dynamic mics require you to get much closer and be a little louder than condensers. The quality, however, is crisp and clear, and the accessories package is … well, *mostly* good.One thing definitely worth noting is that now, after several months of use, one of the sets of elastics in the shock mount *did* just rot through and snap – and when I say ‘sets’ I mean both of the ones on the back part of the mount. The front ones are hangin’ in there, but I can see they’re starting to crack too. I’ll definitely need to get, at least, new elastics soon – possibly just a new shock mount if I can’t find just the bands.So, if the price seems too good to be true, it probably technically is, haha! But everything else is still functional and working well. Only other issue I’ve had is a couple of times over the months of use, friends have reported a bad, weird buzzing sound, but unplugging and re-plugging has solved it instantly – overall still quite happy with my purchase and would recommend it.

A solid value and solidly built podcasting microphone.
If you’re looking for a well-built, clean sounding, good-looking microphone for your podcasting, video-conferencing, or vocal needs, you’re going to have a hard time beating the AU-HD300. It punches well above it’s price tag in terms of quality, features and ease of use. The classic look and style is reminiscent of my AKG P5 mic, but the additional capabilities of the built-in USB C interface and headphone out makes it much easier to use with a computer.Handle-mounted system volume control and on/off switch are also a nice addition. The Cardioid pattern means good sound rejection from behind the mic, so keyboard noises are minimized, and the output is clean, with a low noise-floor. The only caveat to note is that the frequency response dips around 60Hz, and again above 16KHz, so it might not be the ideal choice for instruments such as piano, brass, or drums. But it’s more than capable as a vocal mic, and the desktop accessories included means you don’t need to go on a purchase spree to get this in use right away.

Para gente que desea buen audio y no tiene mucho dinero es buena alternativa, es ideal para entornos con ruido de fondo por se dinamico (de hecho por esto preferi este a otros modelos de maono), tambien se anda comparando con opciones caras, vengo de un senheiser e835 y este maono se le pone al tu por tu, de hecho me agrada mas como suena mi voz con este maono, es lógico que por xlr se va oir mejor el microfono, pero si no tienes interfaz la verdad el sonido por usb también es muy bueno y profesional creeme no te va defraudar, la latencia para monitorearte es casi nula, se puede decir casi que es cero, un buen detalle de microfono, los accesorios con los que viene hace que sea una buena compra y puede que te ahore comprarte un brazo de micrófono, aunque sea una marca desconocida de dudosa procedencia, el producto es muy bueno, pasemos a algunos aspectos negativos para que vean que no todo es perfecto, el volumen en el que graba por usb si es un poco bajo, pero en edición se arregla esto y como si nada pasara, muchos han hablado de su buena construcción, pero si bien es buena, no es mejor que micrófonos como los shure o audiotecnica, para mi ahí puede quedar a deber, otro detalle son los botones para subir o bajar el volumen, estos si bien sirven para regular el volumen de la monitorización, tambien alteran el volumen de tu dispositivo, lo cual puede ser algo incomodo para algunos, y su ultimo defecto es que es recomendable usarlo con antipop porque si no tienes antipop suenan demasiado explosivas las p , aunque se defiende bien en este aspecto al traer un antipop que se ve muy bien

Great sound for podcasting in uncontrolled environments. Very solid build, nice materials, feels like it should hold up to reasonable abuse. Surprisingly good value, could not be happier with the mic and its results!