As someone who has reviewed a crapload of microphones over the years, I’ve always
been super interested in the audio hardware used to create ASMR content.
One of the main, “face of ASMR”, mics is this one right here: The 3Dio Free Space
binaural microphone.
I was super stoked to get to check it out for myself - and while most of it I won’t
share publicly, it’s been a lot of fun messing around trying to create my own ASMR triggers
and play with the audio channels.
The first thing you will notice about the microphone is its striking appearance.
The Primo EM172 microphone capsules are embedded into soft silicone ears designed to look and
act like real human ears.
This contributes to the overall ability of the Free Space to pick up sound naturally
as a human would actually hear it.
3Dio has a few different models available, with better microphones on the higher-priced
ones and XLR output options.
This base model just has a standard 3.5mm output jack, a bass roll-off switch, and a
power switch.
The mic is powered by a 9-volt battery inside - though they appear to have made it difficult
to replace for some reason.
And actually, overall, I find this whole product to have a… strange design situation.
In my unboxing, I noted that the audio cable itself was just thrown in the shipping box
and was not present in the actual product box.
Plus, the cable itself is only a couple inches long - which, combined with the weird placement
of the audio jack and completely inflexible mounting options, can make it difficult to
connect to a recorder.
You can use your own longer audio cable, of course, but it just seems weird.
The bottom of the microphone box features a standard microphone stand mount.
But you can’t change it, you can’t mount if from the top, or do… anything…
with it, without rigging something custom yourself.
I just feel like this kind of setup should be more flexible or adaptable.
Especially since - while intimate ASMR settings are a great use for this mic and all - a really
awesome use case for this mic would be getting audio out in nature or in big groups of people,
and situations like that with a mobile rig really need more mounting options.
Running and gunning with the mic would be much less noisy if it was mounted from the
top.
It is small and lightweight, though.
But how does it sound?
You’re hearing it now.
As a vocal microphone, it’s kind of thin.
Using the bass roll-off switch helps avoid unpleasant sounds to the ears, but further
loses any coloration to the sound.
This is great for real-world, bigger-picture soundscapes, but for normal talking levels
it can require some processing to truly sound “natural”, to me at least.
The binaural effect is pretty good.
For one-on-one stuff like this, you’re not going to notice the separation effect anywhere
near as much unless you get right up on top of it.
It’s amazing for bigger-picture real-world sounds, however.
The key factor here is the mic’s ability to remain low-noise so you can bring up whispers
and soft sounds without a noise floor.
There’s still some light hiss to this mic with most recorders I’ve used, but it’s
much better than what you’d get trying to just strap two cheaper mics side by side or
using the Blue Yeti’s stereo mode for this.
I imagine the XLR model has even less self noise.
The 3Dio Free Space binaural microphone provides an entry point into the binaural or 3D audio
space that doesn’t break the bank anywhere near as much as their higher-tier models or
other products I’ve seen, but still provides a competent setup.
I just wish the chassis itself had more mounting options and was a bit more flexible in nature.
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