Test ModMic Uni, USB & Wireless im Test: Ansteckmikrofone machen aus dem Kopfhörer ein Headset

[AAJoe]

Hey everyone,

Apologies I don't speak German (Well, other than ordering a beer and some doner kabab). I am the marketing director here at Antlion and was thrilled to see this review and the discussion going on. I'm going to do my best to answer some questions and concerns I spotted reading through the 7 pages (!) Of comments! Obviously I am using google translate, so please excuse any issues.

For everyone who has posted they love their ModMic, thank you so much for your support!

For anyone who posted that they have or had a problem with their ModMic, please hit me up on our Discord (Link is on our website) @ AntlionJoe and let me know what went wrong and I'll see if I can fix it. We're a small company compared to the Logitechs of the world and we do everything in our power to make our customers happy, including letting you speak directly to one of our executive staff members live. I can't promise I will resovle every issue but I do promise I will listen and do what I can.

On Price: We know, especially on the wireless, that the price in the EU can be a bit much. Back in the old days (2012 - 2014) the ModMic was a lot cheaper because the parts were cheaper and we only sold directly. Now we have more expensive parts, retailer margins, and we're no longer allowed to secretly send things overseas as gifts to avoid VAT fees (not that we EVER would ... * WINK WINK *) It isn't an excuse, just an explanation.

Why don't wireless gaming headsets sound good?: A few users answered this correctly already, but basically every headset I know of uses a single channel for both signals. The maximum sample rate a mic can send via standard bluetooth is 16khz, with many headsets only doing 8khz. They do this because having two different channels would make the device complicated and more expensive.

What's with our frequency response (100hz - 10khz) ?: In English we have a saying that a little knowledge is very dangerous. You'll notice that almost no mics (us included) list a +-dB rating. While I could rant about this for a long time, a real response listing would say 10hz - 100khz +-3dB, which means in that range it never varies more than 3dB. So why do we list 100-10? That is the number given to use by the company that makes the capsules we use. We could (and many companies do) just make up any numbers we want. Without the variance listing frequency response numbers are meaningless. Please don't trust them and don't make purchase decisions based on them! Listen to the devices and determine if they sound good or find devices that list variance (good luck finding them).

@Orok91 Sorry to hear your USB is having issues! We have a full 2 year warranty for EU customers, so please email us to get that USB swapped out.

@change - @jimmy13 got it right, the ModMic magnet is strong enough to hold the mic, but the influence it would have on a driver should be well below even the most audio-focused person to hear.

@hans_meiser - If one of your mic modes is broken you're still under warranty in the EU (2 years) so please let us know asap and get you hooked up with a new one. We're also honestly not sure what to do about battery replacements, but we'll probably have some kind of trade in / trade up program in the near future.

Lastly, a few quick words. Big thanks to @mischaef for their review, please hit me up if you need to prove my identity (not sure about the rules of computer base). Believe it or not we are ALL for all the discussion here about modding mics onto headphones. Our solution is for those that can't be bothered to do it themselves, but we're really just a bunch of audio and computer nerds that love tinkering, so whether you're soldering a mic capsule to your headphones, trying to get two -way bluetooth to work, or just buying a ModMic - as long as you get the audio YOU want we're happy.

 

[calippo]

@AAJoe

What is about BT 5.0 with the higher datarate? Is that enough to transmit 2-channel audio and mic more or less lossless?
I'm really eager to have an external device like the modmic but with a 3.5mm stereo jack as well, so that i'm able to turn any headphone into a wireless headset.
I'd pay about 200€ for something like that, as there is not really an alternative available in the market.

 

[boonstyle]

While I could rant about this for a long time, a real response listing would say 10hz - 100khz +-3dB, which means in that range it never varies more than 3dB. So why do we list 100-10? That is the number given to use by the company that makes the capsules we use. We could (and many companies do) just make up any numbers we want.

Yeah you could, but someone will soon find out and tech media will flame you on reddit until someone starts a lawsuit for false advertisement in the US and everyone and their dog will join in just to get a few bucks back from their purchase...

So technically speaking you won't make it up and yeah 100-10 is not sufficient for mic at this pricepoint when you can get actually good mics or even headsets with better mic quality for 60 bucks. Or even do a makeshift mics by buying a capsule soldering it to your headphones for less with a better quality of sound.

100-10 is barely over g.722 which is 50-7 and used in most call centers here. But if I spent 60 euro I expect to get a quality that can actually resemble voices even with high pitch (like my kids on video call with their grandparents). Beeing capped at 10khz just sounds wrong for many voices. So I expect my mic to reliably catch up to 12ish khz +-3db.

 

[AAJoe]

@AAJoe

What is about BT 5.0 with the higher datarate? Is that enough to transmit 2-channel audio and mic more or less lossless?
I'm really eager to have an external device like the modmic but with a 3.5mm stereo jack as well, so that i'm able to turn any headphone into a wireless headset.
I'd pay about 200€ for something like that, as there is not really an alternative available in the market.

I've yet to hear the specs on the the dual channel BT5, but I would be surprised if it improves the mic backchannel. Worse (probably) is that BT5 is not going to be low latency from what I know (Please note I am the marketing director, not an engineer so take all of this with a grain of salt).

However, what we're more interested in is the new BTLE Audio codec. Supposedly it's going to be high quality with low latency and more importantly, low battery use. If we change from aptX it's likely BTLE as the "next" wireless unit, but I can honestly say we have not begun development on this product yet. We DO know we'll have USB-C and probably a dedicated on/off button this time (This is what most people complain about, lol).

Ergänzung (25. November 2020)

Yeah you could, but someone will soon find out and tech media will flame you on reddit until someone starts a lawsuit for false advertisement in the US and everyone and their dog will join in just to get a few bucks back from their purchase...

So technically speaking you won't make it up and yeah 100-10 is not sufficient for mic at this pricepoint when you can get actually good mics or even headsets with better mic quality for 60 bucks. Or even do a makeshift mics by buying a capsule soldering it to your headphones for less with a better quality of sound.

100-10 is barely over g.722 which is 50-7 and used in most call centers here. But if I spent 60 euro I expect to get a quality that can actually resemble voices even with high pitch (like my kids on video call with their grandparents). Beeing capped at 10khz just sounds wrong for many voices. So I expect my mic to reliably catch up to 12ish khz +-3db.

Well, I don't want to get into a huge argument over this, but our mic is not capped at 10khz. 10khz is not the maximum range of our mic, nor is 100hz the minimum range, as it is analog. It is simply the spec given by the capsule for its frq response range. What it likely means is there's rolloff above 10khz and below 100hz, however, there's no info given on how sharp that rolloff is. In my experience our mics sound MUCH better than the 100hz - 10khz range implies.

As to the honesty of other companies... you are more trusting than I am. I love Beyerdynamic headphones, but even I have to question what they really mean when they say their headphones are 5hz - 35khz. I don't think they are "lying", I think they're just stretching what those values really imply. I mean, when was the last time you saw anyone even post a response curve that showed 5hz?

So all I am saying is don't trust this number without context and/or hearing it.

 

[boonstyle]

As to the honesty of other companies... you are more trusting than I am. I love Beyerdynamic headphones, but even I have to question what they really mean when they say their headphones are 5hz - 35khz.

Noone cares about 35khz since literalky noone can hear it due to the human physic. I know my two pairs of headphones deliver the frequency that are relevant according to their frequency response pretty reliable and do not cut off at 10/12/15 khz if a proper interface / soundcard is used and have different strengths regarding treble,kids and bass (which is why I use different headphones for different recordings).

Also I'm not expecting a modmic to be able to make me record music but the fact that your supplier got capsule grades them up to 10khz (as stated by you) does imply that over a set of a significant amount of capsules it is the reliable frequency response that can be guaranteed otherwise he would specify them for more,at least it wouldn't make sense to grade them worse than they actually are.

 

[Der Kabelbinder]

Hello AAJoe, nice to see you around here in the community!
I hope you don't mind me commenting a few things here.

You'll notice that almost no mics (us included) list a +-dB rating.

Instead they would list the frequency response plot showing the actual sensitivity across the whole spectrum.

Unfortunately, there is no info on that on your website. So let's have a look at the plot measured by Julian Krause:

I am not sure about the his exact measurement setup. But to my knowledge he measures in near field with a calibrated KEF full range speaker. Probably good enough for a rough evaluation.

You can see that there is a pretty strong tilt in the response which emphasizes the upper mids and lower highs (the region where our ears are most sensitive). You can also track the strong roll-off starting around 4.5 / 6 kHz which is pretty much the explination for the limited resolution (lack of detail and clarity) of your cardioid capsules.
The omni has a much better high frequency extention, as expected for a capsule without directivity. There are a few severe dips with pretty wide Q and up to 5 dB of attenuation, though. Not sure if that is due to the construction of the capsule, its implementation in the plastic housing or an unfortunate manufacturing spread (faulty sample?). Doesn't look (and sound) that nice tbh.

That is the number given to use by the company that makes the capsules we use. We could (and many companies do) just make up any numbers we want. Without the variance listing frequency response numbers are meaningless. Please don't trust them and don't make purchase decisions based on them.

Why do you list such specifications then if you cannot trust the supplier?
I would expect such a known brand to make some spot checks at least. Especially at those price tags.

Having that said, I don't know who your supplier is. But to me - someone who builds microphones himself and has quite a bit of experience with cheap electret mics - I don't think that the capsules you choose perform too well (to put it politely).

As already mentioned, you can get electrets with only 14 dB of self noise, a pretty linear response between 20 Hz and 15 kHz, minimal THD and a very high sensitivity for just around 3 Euros here in Germany. And that's only per single piece, consumer price! Those capsules wipe the floor with pretty much any headset I have tested so far, as much as your ModMic lineup.

To be honest, I see no aspect that could justify a purchase of your products other than the clip-on mechanism or the wireless connectivity. I hope to see more R&D, a better selection of components and - most of all - a fair price model in the future.

Just my 2 cents.

Regards
Kabelbinder

 

[Jannis G.]

Leider ist die Soundqualität bei ModMics mit der onboard Soundkarte nicht sonderlich gut.

 

[AAJoe]

@Der Kabelbinder

Heh I don't mind the discussion at all! Again, I am the marketing guy so very much the wrong person to discuss the capsule selection as a whole. As to why we publish numbers, it is because people expect to see them. If we had no numbers people would bring it up constantly. If we publish numbers that don't match the specs of the capsule, well... even if nobody cared or noticed, it's just not in our company DNA.

Frequency response curves from the brands are often doctored, using non-standard smoothing (often not even publishing what method they used to come up with them). I'm not pointing fingers at anyone specific here, and I don't mean to even call out Beyerdynamic for their headphones other than an example where the numbers are placed there more for people who don't understand them than for people who do. Honestly, I love their headphones regardless of their published numbers. The more expensive the mic the less true this becomes, but go grab the published stats of even well known mics in the 100-200 Euro range and you'll see some questionable results.

This is a very long way of saying we'd much rather someone like Julian run our numbers so you can trust it being unbiased than try to convince you we're somehow more honest than the next guys (We are, but that is not the point). That's just my marketing method.

As for if the capsules are a good choice, I am totally open to hearing suggestions I can pass over to the engineers for future iterations. I am not above getting opinions from the community nor claiming our products are perfect and can't be improved. We're ALWAYS looking to improve our stuff!

The ModMic line has 3 goals: Be compatible with every headphone and as many inputs as possible. Be easy to set up. Sound good.

While we will always get compared to both gaming headsets (favorably) and full desktop setups (sometimes unfavorably), our product is more about form factor than anything else. Obviously we WANT it to compare favorably to everything, but we'd never sacrifice the compatibility (which does limit the capsule size) to get there. At least, not the current lineup (There may be future products which are targeting sound quality above other things). So, my honest opinion of our product line is it's perfect if you want a headset style setup and want to sound better than most (all?) headsets. Would I recommend it over the SM7B for voice work? Not a chance, but for most of our customers the headset style mic with a lot better quality than similar headsets is enough.

Edit: Also, I really and honestly do value feedback and discussions. I'm totally happy to talk at length about why we choose to do or not do things from the marketing perspective. My ability to talk technically is limited, I have no doubt many of you know more about the engineering of mics than I do. Just know my ability to reply to certain topics may be limited and everything I say about technical stuff may be... wrong. It isn't on purpose if it happens, it's simply me being an actual human and not a company robot.

 

[DrSeltsam95]

Hi @AAJoe I got a spare part question, my V4 still works fine but the pop filter is beginning to dissolve and there is no pop filter in the Accessories combo pack, so does the support send one or a pack of these out after contacting them?
Or can you send a link to a matching one on Amazon? I don't want to trial and error with various sizes.

@Jannis G. Hab ich ja schon gesagt, wobei vielleicht auch der Sharkoon Gaming DAC reichen könnte, aber den TRRS-Adapter nicht vergessen, die Xonar U7 habe ich damals mehr wegen der Lautstärketasten für den Eingang und eben dem KHV-Teil gekauft, damit ich nicht noch nen separaten FiiO E10K oder ähnliches brauche.

 

[AAJoe]

@DrSeltsam95 Drop us an email (link is on our site) and we can send you the specs and some recommendations. I don't recall them off the top of my head.

 

[boonstyle]

@Der Kabelbinder
The ModMic line has 3 goals: Be compatible with every headphone and as many inputs as possible. Be easy to set up. Sound good.

Well the first two goals can be achieved with a lot of different capsules and the latter one would actually be good if you out in a capsule that dies deliver a steady and reliable response, unless it's the way of you implementing the capsule which harms the quality. We got some modmics here in our internal call center and they sound worse than our regular headsets (sennheiser now epos) which cost about the same as a complete headset. Also as mentioned my son got a headset with a modular mic (the headset cost 50ish euro on sale which is like ever two weeks) that has better response in hights (but weaker picking up Bass). So what is the point in your product if I can just buy this complete headset pick the mic and stick it to my headphones giving me the same sound + I got an actually good pair of headphones at the same time? Why would I buy an modmic uni at this point? Also the quality and lifespan of modmics is actually mediocre compared to many other products we use for communication. For myself I feels like a call center mic, where it's okish but it doesn't excel, that somehow got a foot in to gaming but its just to pricy for it's performance.

Also for the part that more expensive feel not true, I got several mics here (rode,sennheiser,at ) which I would call more expensive (180-400 eur) and they sound more true... But yeah those are no simple phones at headsets.

Btw I'm not saying the mics are plain bad but they are not performing like a 60 eur+ mic.

 

[Draco Nobilis]

Verstehe ich das richtig? Du hast es in die Buchse deiner KH eingesteckt? Oder muss es in die Mikrobuchse gesteckt werden?
Mein problem mit den ganzen KH mit Mikro ist einfach - entweder schweineteuer, oder Mikro ist ok, aber Soundquali oder allg. verarbeitung der KH, ist mist. Nicht einfach zu reinigen, sollbruchstellen, etc.

Ich habe aktuell weiße "Marshall Major 3" und bin mit den KHs soweit (Bügel, O.muscheln mit Leder überzogen, halterung der O.muscheln aus Stahldraht) zufrieden.
Laufen über BT und das sehr lange. Wenn ich so einen Mikro einfach in die Buchse der KH stecken kann und es läuft, wäre es prima.

Das sieht so aus wie auf dem Bild, gibt sicher hübscheres, für mich langt es völlig.
Einfach mit 2 Kabelbindern fest gemacht. Es sitzt absolut sicher, nichts ist gequetscht. Das Mic Kabel kann jederzeit ab oder wer will mit einem Y-Adapter zusammengelegt werden, wem es stört.
Ich trag es halt nicht außer Haus auf auf dem Kopf, das sähe dann vlt. etwas komisch aus und wegen der geschlossenen Bauweise des KH eh nicht unbedingt zu empfehlen.

Da ich seit einem halben Jahr Homeoffice mache aber nicht ein einziger Gesprächspartner etwas an der Qualität auszusetzen hatte, sollte es wohl gut sein.
Vor allem da ich hin und wieder danach Frage, weil, sonst bekommt man Audioprobleme oder ähnliches nicht mit (Metakommunikation). Vgl. mit dem Mic eines Jabra BIZ 2400 hält er problemlos Stand.

 

[synci]

Das lötet man sich an das Headset Mikrofon, das per Klinke im Kopfhörer steckt.
Den Kopfhörer steckt man per Klinke dann in eine USB Soundkarte.

Ich habe das auf Basis eines DT 770 Pro gelöst, zwei Klinkenbuchsen verbaut und ein 4Pol Kabel geht in den Sharkoon Dac (oder ins Handy zum Telefonieren oder ins Notebook in die 4pol Buchse)

Kostet:
115€ für den DT 770 Pro (man könnte auch einen offenen oder halboffenen Kopfhörer nehmen)
2,89€ für die PUI 5024HD Mikrofonkapsel (eben bestellt, ob ein Unterschied zur aktuellen Kapsel zur hören ist?)
2,83€ für die beiden Klinkenbuchsen
30€ für den Sharkoon DAC Pro (der hat nur 2,2 V am Mikrofoneingang, eine Delock USB fliegt hier auch rum)
5,49€ für 1,5m 4pol Klinkenkabel
6,54€ für einen flexiblen Mikrofonarm (die Kapsel tauscht man dann gegen die gute Kapsel aus)

In Summe 162,75€ dafür bekommt man eine flexible modulare Headset Lösung, die man so nicht im Markt findet, obwohl es für Hersteller ein leichtes wäre, so was zu produzieren. (wenn ich das kann und ich weiß nur, wo das heiße Ende am Lötkolben ist )
Das sind alles Endkundeneinzelpreise, im Großhandel zahlt man einen wesentlich geringeren Preis.

Dagegen sind die aufgerufenen Preise für ein Modmic oder für den MMX300 einfach ziemlich hoch.

Vielen Dank für diese geniale Idee !
Hättest Du evtl. Fotos für uns wie Du das gelöst hast ?
Insbesondere der "Einbau" der beiden Klinkenbuchsen am DT 770 Pro würde mich interessieren.
Danke Dir

 

[mawasesnet]

@AAJoe

I hate and love my ModMic Wireless at the same time. On one hand, the concept ist absolutly great. Being wireless makes it really easy to switch between different headphones and i love that.

But being wireless also means that i have to charge it and i in my opinion there is nothing worse than having to keep track of the carging status of a product. I just want to be able to pick it up and use it, without the need to worry, that i might have to attach the cable soon beause it isnt fully charged.

I absolutley love the approach Seelseries took with their Pro Wireless Headset. It has a transmitter with a 2nd battery inside, so when u run low on battery, you can just switch the battery in a few seconds. You never have to connect it to a wire, this basically gives you unlimited battery life.

I am aware, that that would be probably hard to do on such a small form factor like the ModMic Wireless, maybe even impossible. The only way i could imagine it is by having the buttons on the bottom and having a "walkie talkie style clip on battery" on the side.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Enough of me dreaming. Here some more realistic things i would improve on a new version of the Modmic Wireless:

-) USB C

-) A proper battery indicator, that is easy to understand. I mean something like 6 Leds that light up while i have full battery, and stop lighting up as the battery goes down, so i can better judge how much battery is left. Since i cant see the leds on my mic while using it, the indicator should probably be on the USB transmitter.

-) There should also be a nice long USB Extension in the box, so i can place the transmitter on my desk. This would it make easier to see status LEDs and would probably also be better for reception. If u dont know what i mean, look at the "Netgear A6210" Wifi Stick. It comes with a USB-extension stand, i personally think something like this would be nice for the the modmic as well. Maybe even have an additional USB C port on it, so i can just plug the Mic in there to charge it.

-) The button"s" need to be improved. A proper on-off switch, etc.

-) I hate that it turns on, when i plug it in to charge. I know its probably meant so u can just keep using it after it turned off because of low battery, without having to turn it on again. But i still dislike it, none of my products turn on when i put them to charge.

-) Longer battery life, just because longer battery life is always better.

-) This is probably not needed by 99,999% of people but i still want to mention it: A 3,5mm mic-output on the transmitter, so i can feed the signal into my interface or any other device.

 

[calippo]

Insbesondere der "Einbau" der beiden Klinkenbuchsen am DT 770 Pro würde mich interessieren.

Schau mal hier, da habe ich zumindest mal ein paar Bilder von außen eingestellt
https://www.computerbase.de/forum/threads/kopfhoerer-headset-mod.1547796/page-3
Da können wir weiter machen, ich schaue mal, ob ich ein paar Bilder des Innenlebens finde.

 

[boonstyle]

Schau mal hier, da habe ich zumindest mal ein paar Bilder von außen eingestellt
https://www.computerbase.de/forum/threads/kopfhoerer-headset-mod.1547796/page-3
Da können wir weiter machen, ich schaue mal, ob ich ein paar Bilder des Innenlebens finde.

Hm da wäre auch ein vierpol gegangen oder? So dass du Stereo Headset und mich in ein Kabel legst. Muss dann halt am Ende gesplittert werden. Hat dein dt 770 lösbare Kabel ? Hab bei meinem nicht reingesehen aber ich gehe davon aus dass die verlötet sind.

 

[Der Kabelbinder]

If we publish numbers that don't match the specs of the capsule, well... even if nobody cared or noticed, it's just not in our company DNA.

How do you assure that the quantities you accuire are all within the listed spec?

By the way: The Uni models are around - 4.5 dB around 10 kHz on JK's graph. And do not forget about the dip! The specs are there to ensure consistency. Unfortunately, your products do not appear to fulfill that.

Frequency response curves from the brands are often doctored, using non-standard smoothing (often not even publishing what method they used to come up with them). I'm not pointing fingers at anyone specific here .... but go grab the published stats of even well known mics in the 100-200 Euro range and you'll see some questionable results.

There is a lot of misleading data out there, indeed. I would take that as an incentive to do better.

As for if the capsules are a good choice, I am totally open to hearing suggestions I can pass over to the engineers for future iterations.

I would suggest to start with some research. There is a lot of valuable info about that on the internet.

Be compatible with every headphone and as many inputs as possible.

Just one word: Sensitivity!

There may be future products which are targeting sound quality above other things

Well, you do not have to make compromises to achieve a good sound quality, actually. You just have to choose better components. To be honest, I cannot imagine that the capsules you acquired so far are worth $1 the piece. But feel free to prove me wrong.

So, my honest opinion of our product line is it's perfect if you want a headset style setup and want to sound better than most (all?) headsets. Would I recommend it over the SM7B for voice work? Not a chance, but for most of our customers the headset style mic with a lot better quality than similar headsets is enough.

The comparison to a SM7B is inappropriate. You should not compare your products versus studio-grade microphones. You should compare it to rigs of the same price range that offer much better sound quality.

I like to mention the Behringer XM8500 + UMC22 + a stand or arm. You can get that for only 70 Euros and just excel in sound quality, compared to the "gaming" standards. It is pretty much the best price-to-performance set you can get in the < 150 Euro category if you want a good sound.

You may call for a clip-on mic like the ModMic. I see that. But then again, I would still have to replace the capsules to get at least somewhere near the performance of such a set.
Other than that, there are a lot of users who are very happy with their BoomPro or cheapo clippy mic they got from eBay or Amazon. If you observe the market you will note that you can get a decent quality (near that of the ModMic capsules) for just 15 Euros already.

Regards
Kabelbinder

 

[Guenselmann]

Been following this thread from the beginning, quite pleasantly surprised to see an Antlion representative chime in. I feel like most things have been said already. Nevertheless I want to share my experiences because in my opinion the comparisons repeated in this thread are not appropriate. At the same time ModMic can certainly be improved. I will share my opinions on that in a moment.

First, I tried pretty much all the different microphone approaches in the past (feel free to suggest other ones):

1. Stand-alone: Too bulky, can be a mess with mechanical keyboard noise, voice volume changes when changing sitting position or has to be repositioned.
2. Clip-on: Has to be un-clipped separately each time you leave the PC, more prone to pick up keyboard noise due to positioning.
3. Self-made "modmic" using cheap capsule with some wire as an arm: Really cheap and still decent sound quality, but could not be moved out of the way easily because I used two pieces of velcro and some double-sided tape to attach it to the headphones. Used this for a long time on Beyer DT880, but eventually it got tedious.

I haven't modded a mic directly into my headphones because 1) I lack the ability to do so, and more importantly 2) I am not going to mod my Beyer T1 or Focal Clear. BoomPro doesn't work with my headphones, it is just not an option for many people.

Overall, the ModMic is simply the most comfortable approach. The magnetic attachment is great and does not get in the way. I own the simple variant of v4 (twice for commuting reasons), so keep that in mind in my criticisms:

• Build: I don't see any problems in this regard. But I don't roll over my cables all the time like some people (must be really hard to lay your cables properly).
• Sound quality: It is good enough for voice chats, but not more. For the price it could certainly be better. This is my biggest criticism. Since unit-to-unit variations came up: Both of my units were purchased at the same time and subjectively sound identical. Variations due to different ADCs are much more noticeable. That's all I can say about that.
• Price: High, but there is just nothing else on the market which works as well, so I am fine with paying. But looking at my headphones I realize I might be a minority.

So in short, there is no better alternative for my use case and I am happy with my ModMic. Maybe there will be a competitor one day and the price falls. I wouldn't mind that, @AAJoe might

 

[AAJoe]

Oh boy, sorry for the slow reply today it's Thanksgiving here in the States. A lot to unpack and I'll try to get to everything I can.

@maweasesnet Thanks for your feedback! You've basically matched word for word what we've heard from everyone, so consider the message received. A future version (not yet in development so don't wait) will absolutely use USB-C, almost certainly have a dedicated on/off button, a very likely better battery life indicator (lots of opinions on the how for this) and almost certainly longer battery life because by the time we release this thing we hope there are improvements in power consumption and battery density.

The one item that threw me was: It DOES come with a USB extension cable for the receiver as well as an adhesive anchor to put it somewhere on your desk so it doesn't move if you bump it or the cable. So uh, let me know if this was missing from your box or something got lost in translation here.

We don't plan on having it turn on when you plug it in either, that was also not our wisest decision. Not sure about additional outputs though, but consider your suggestion heard and added to our ever-growing list of possible future features.

As for replaceable batteries and hot-swap batteries / stands / chargers... mostly this was avoided in version 1 simply to keep costs down as well as ensure the thing isn't too big, but it's high on our list of things we want to spend R&D time on.

@Der Kabelbinder I totally appreciate and respect your feedback, but I have this feeling that my responses are not satisfying you, and that is making you... annoyed? angry? It's not my intent, so I am happy to keep up our conversation, but I also don't want it to get out of hand. Doing my best here!

First, as to ensuring the capsules meet spec we have a third party QA team on the ground at the factory in China. Of course, we don't have the resources to test every unit, but we do follow industry standards to ensure minimal variation and issues via random sampling. Bad units still get out to the public of course, even some reviewers! Not my finest hour when that happens I assure you!

We are absolutely doing our best to be better than our competitors with transparency. Can we do better still? Yes! However, we're a really small company compared to almost every major audio brand. Our manpower and resources are limited, we have never taken venture capital, and have no joint venture connections. Every dollar in the company was made by selling ModMics (and a couple mousepads here and there) and then re-invested. As we continue to grow we are getting better about having more data, more QA, and more information. I hope we can continue this trend, but to put it in perspective the first generation ModMics (2012-2014) were made by hand in a spare bedroom. I was hired in 2016 as the first marketing person for the whole company (I worked in the game industry previously). It's a double edged sword, it allows us to really try new and different approaches, but sometimes limits our ability to appear as professional or have tons of data. Still, I'd rather be the scrappy upstart than have to answer to some corporate overlord or VC firm.

If you don't want to share component ideas, that is fine too. We do test new equipment with each iteration in hopes of improving our component selection, but there are a lot of options out there and as above, we don't have the resources (mostly limited by time) to test everything.

Finally, what I meant with the SM7B comment is we are often compared to microphones like that, even by professional review outlets. To be a little more honest, it's usually a Yeti or AT2020, but the point is we don't actually consider desktop mics a 1:1 competitor, our aim is to beat out headset style mics by a solid margin. Still, and you're totally in your rights to disagree, a lot of reviews do place our mics on par or close to the Yeti and AT2020, which are closer to the right price range, but as long as we crush standard gaming and voip headsets I am a happy clam (An English phrase that may not translate well).

I do hope in the next wired revision we can bring the price down a bit and improve the quality at the same time though. We are probably not going to do a single cable solution like the Boompro because of two reasons. First, it is not universally compatible since it required a standard 3.5mm detachable cable. Second, having a TRRS cable can cause some weird issues on consoles and certain setups, usually in the form of echo or ground loops. There may be ways around this (I am not the engineer again), so that is why I say probably. It's something we'll continue to work on in the coming years. Still, I don't think we can get the thing down to 15 Euros no matter what we do.


@Guenselmann Thanks to you as well for your feedback and being a (two time!) customer

Not to repeat myself but finding a way to bring down prices is always on our to-do list. I know it has not been our trend lately, but our "current generation" had a lot of new stuff under the hood. Now that we know what works (and found a few things we can improve on), the next generation may be cheaper. I won't promise anything, as we're not even working on new ModMics yet (we have a completely new product in the pipeline), but lower price is a high priority for me and I am on your side that we could make up for some lost margin with increased volume, but basically this has to be coupled with reduced costs to get everyone on board. A little behind the scenes look at the Antlion world! lol.

Anyway, that's all I have for this post. Happy Thanksgiving from the US!

 

[mawasesnet]

The one item that threw me was: It DOES come with a USB extension cable for the receiver as well as an adhesive anchor to put it somewhere on your desk so it doesn't move if you bump it or the cable. So uh, let me know if this was missing from your box or something got lost in translation here.

My bad, i just checked and it was indeed in the box. I must have immediatly put it in my "cable drawer" and forgot about it, since its too short for my standing desk setup. But now i also know what that adhesive cable clip is for.

I would still prefer an extension cable with a solid (heavy) stand tho.