(Music that kind of sounds like when The Wonders played as extras in "That Thing You Do")
- How much money you really need to spend to get
good sounding audio for your podcasts and live streams?
It makes sense that more expensive gear
is gonna give you better results,
but if you're just starting out
or you're on a budget,
there are a lot of less expensive options out there.
Today we're gonna take a look at a full podcasting kit
that I was able to get brand new for less than $50.
And that is the Maooo...
Mao...Maon...Maon, I don't know how to say this thing
but it's the Maono AU-AO4.
A-U ready for this?
(that same music as from before)
This video is not sponsored in any way, shape, or form.
I just have been getting a lot of comments on my videos
asking if I have ever tried out
or asking for me to try out
the Maono
brand microphone, specifically this one.
And finally when I looked it up,
the whole kit was available for $48.
The MSRP is $61.99 and
I was able to get it for $48,
but prices do fluctuate a lot
so it can go up or it can go down.
Be sure to check the link in the description
right below that SUBSCRIBE button
for the most up-to-date current price
at the time you're watching this video.
What really caught my eye with this
was the fact that it was affordable.
It got great reviews,
and it has everything you need to get started.
It's a USB microphone,
so you don't need a mixer or an interface
or anything like that.
It should just plug and play with either MacOS or PC.
Comes with a boom arm, a pop filter, a windscreen, a cable,
basically everything you need to get started.
And if you know me, you know that
I always think that investing
and upgrading your audio
should be one of the first things
that you put your money towards,
even before a camera or improving your image quality.
Anything you can do to level up your audio
is really going to make the biggest difference overall.
And this kit is specifically designated for podcasting,
but obviously it's a USB mic,
so you could use it for anything,
but really geared towards podcasters, streamers
that sort of thing.
The back of the box has all of the features and specs,
including frequency response charts, polar patterns,
and every bit of info you would need for this microphone.
So let's see if these specs
can live up to our ex-spec-tations.
I haven't opened this or use this yet
so I wanted to run through the entire process with you
so that way we can see together what you get
and what you can expect.
So yeah, user manual.
Now on the top, we've got a windscreen.
It's sort of the same type of windscreen
that comes with most less expensive microphones.
It's a little flat from shipping.
Comes with a pop filter,
which is actually a pretty decent pop filter.
The gooseneck is strong.
It's made to clamp on a boom arm and it's soft,
but it does stop air from getting through.
And it's got a logo on it.
It's pretty cool little pop filter.
And in the second layer,
this is like one of those candy boxes
where there's multiple layers of candy.
But instead of chocolates and things,
we've got a shock mount.
This kind of what I was expecting.
This is the exact same shock mount
that comes with the Neewer NW 700 and 800 microphones.
It's the exact same and that's actually okay,
because these are shockingly good shock mounts.
They're not super heavy duty,
but they're pretty well-built.
They work really well.
It's easy to put the microphone in
and it does come with an adapter,
a 3/8 to 5/8 inch adapter.
So you can connect this to pretty much any mic stand
or boom arm,
but of course it comes with a boom arm
and it's gonna work with that.
You've got some Velcro ties
to put the cables on the boom arm.
You've got a really long USB cable,
which is nice because it has this core thingy here.
And this is gonna help prevent interference
when you're using this
since it's the USB microphone.
But I forget what kind of USB connector this is.
This is like the old school printer USB connector.
This is definitely not a USB-C situation up in here,
but we will see how well it works.
We've got the table clamp for the boom arm.
I did do a video about expensive
versus inexpensive boom arms.
And in that the boom arm that I tried out was a Neewer,
really inexpensive boom arm.
It had the same clamp.
I don't like these
because it puts the weight of the boom arm
off the edge of the table,
which means it just becomes easier
for it to loosen over time.
Whereas something like the Rode PSA-1,
which is my favorite boom arm,
it puts the weight of the boom arm on the table.
And it's much more stable and much more sturdy.
And if you watch that video,
this arm right here is not branded.
It's very lightweight.
It really feels like the exact same boom arm
that I talked about in that video.
So if you would have watched that comparison
and it's definitely enough to get the job done.
It's not gonna be great with a super heavy microphone,
but it should work with the mic that it comes with.
Like I'm always moving and adjusting
and changing my boom arms.
That will put more wear and tear on them more quickly.
But if you're just kind of positioning it,
setting it, and forgetting it for the most part,
these should last at least enough to get you started.
We'll see how it works.
And of course, we've got the microphone itself,
which really looks
like a mini Rode NT1.
It's sort of similar to the Neewer NW 700.
However, this is an XLR microphone.
This is a USB microphone.
And that's really what we want to pay attention to here,
because that means just right out of the box,
everything you have here, you're ready to go.
You don't need any additional equipment.
But it's got a nice metal build.
It's medium weightiness
so it's not like a super heavy microphone,
but it doesn't feel super cheesy and cheap.
Let's take this off.
Let's see what we've got in here.
In my NW 700 comparison video,
I also did make a comparison to the NW 800,
which were both supposed to be condenser microphones.
And we opened it up.
We looked at the capsule and saw that
it wasn't the highest quality capsule.
It was really an electric condenser capsule,
but it got the job done.
And on the NW 700,
it actually sounds pretty decent.
This looks to have what appears to be basically
the exact same capsule as the NW 700,
but that's actually a good sign
because it was decent sounding.
It's nothing compared to like the Rode NT1,
which is a whole, whole different beast altogether.
The back of the circuit board has the company's URL on it,
which is neat because it seems
like this has maybe a more custom design
or at least custom ordered product
and not just a generic one
that they slap their name on.
Which is kind of what happens
with the other microphones.
So maybe it has some different qualities as well.
Let's put it back together and try it out.
Now condenser mic like this is made
to be a side address microphone.
So don't get it and talk to the top of it
and don't get it and talk to the back of it
cause it's also gonna sound pretty bad.
So as I'm putting it together and making sure that the logo
is lined up with the front, so that way when using it,
you just know talking to the side with the logo on it.
Now, the thing here that we're looking for is
not to discover the best sounding microphone in the world.
I know that this microphone is not gonna sound as good
as something like the Rode NT1
or the Shure SM7B or even like the PodMic.
But that doesn't mean it's gonna sound bad.
I haven't tried it yet.
If it sounds good
and for under $50, you get this entire setup
that's ready to go, that would be a really cool thing.
And it would definitely be something I would like
to be able to recommend to people
who just want to get started.
So let's put this together and see how it all works.
First step is to mount the boom arm.
This is a pretty standard thickness.
And usually I like to put like a soft felt pad
or something here.
Even just like some tape or some paper
to prevent this from scratching the bottom of a table.
It just comes with metal.
And then we can take this, pop it in here.
One thing I actually do like
better about these cheaper mic stands
than the Rode PSA-1
is that they can easily go vertical right here.
The PSA-1 has kind of like a curved top part.
And that means you can't flip it up to be totally vertical,
which is why I like, for situations like this,
I have to have this crazy adaptor
to put this microphone on to mount it vertical.
Whereas something like this,
it could just go right there.
So that's actually something I like.
It's one of the few things
that I don't like about the Rode PSA-1.
You just squeeze these little clamps,
slide the microphone in, and you're all set.
I've got it plugged in.
There are no controls on the microphone.
There's no indicator lights.
There's no headphone outputs,
no volume, no anything.
It's just the microphone.
I'm just going by the pictures on the box.
They have the pop filter mounted to the top rail of the arm
and just kind of coming over the microphone like this.
If you really tighten it down, it'll work.
But there look, we've got our whole setup here.
I mean, this works.
The arm is keeping it in position
wherever I'm putting it.
It all feels pretty darn good.
So the next thing is to then see how this actually sounds.
So I'm gonna run it through GarageBand
because GarageBand is free.
And if you're buying this microphone,
cause you're on a budget,
you probably don't wanna spend hundreds of dollars
on audio recording software.
So I'm just using the free option,
which has GarageBand.
And now you're listening to
the Maono AU-A04 Condenser USB microphone.
I did stop all the recording and play around
with this for awhile.
So I could run some of my own tests
and kind of start to form my opinion
before the part that's being recorded for this video.
I haven't done any equalization on it.
This is just straight into the computer,
again into GarageBand,
which is free recording software with no effects
or anything added whatsoever.
Now a couple of things I did notice
is that it's very necessary to use either the pop filter
or a windscreen with this microphone,
because it is very susceptible to plosives.
It's also, as you probably just heard
very susceptible to handling noise.
So if you're touching the microphone,
which I don't know why you would be tickling the microphone
during a stream or a podcast.
It's mounted to my desk
and if I move around on the desk and do stuff like that,
you're definitely gonna hear those sounds.
So you want to be very conscious
of how you are moving around
when you're using this microphone.
Let's do a plosive test
so you can see what I was talking about.
Here is just the microphone itself.
Peter Piper pitched a podcast.
Here it is, whoops.
Peter Piper pitched a podcast.
And here's with the windscreen
that comes with the microphone.
Peter Piper pitched a podcast.
So you can definitely hear some difference
between the pop filter, the wind screen,
and just the microphone with nothing on it.
You definitely, I think,
need to use something with this microphone.
Don't just use it as is
cause then you're gonna get all kinds of plosives,
which is gonna be very annoying in you're recording.
And if you use both together,
nothing's gonna get through.
Pah, pah, pah.
Peter Piper pitched a podcast, plosives, explosive plosives.
Nothing's gonna get through both of these.
So I'm not sure how to pronounce Maono.
I wish I would have wrote it down somewhere,
wrote it down.
But this is the Maono A04 microphone.
And this is the Neat Widget USB microphone.
I wanted to make sure to do this comparison
because I recently did a video all about this microphone
and this by itself costs about 35 to $40.
By the way,
these are officially discontinued now.
So if you can find one online and you want one,
I'd recommend getting it because otherwise
you're not going to be able to get it after that.
But comes together with the stand and everything,
no pop filter.
And this is the Neat Widget.
It doesn't include the arm or anything like that.
It's just a self-contained all in one microphone.
But what I like about this is how tall it is.
So it's very easy to position the microphone
where you want it to be
so that way it's closer to your mouth.
And we're gonna look at the Rode NT USB mini,
which is a very tiny, compact all-in-one microphone.
These usually sell for about a hundred dollars.
So that is twice the price for all intents and purposes
of this whole setup.
You don't need anything else because it's self-contained
with a stand right here.
So this is the Maono microphone.
And this is the Rode NT USB mini.
What you probably notice right away
is that it does not sound,
it sounds kind of reverby
and that's because my biggest complaint with the mini,
it is an excellent microphone,
but it's so tiny that when you just set it on the desk,
it ends up being so far away from you
that it's hard to get the best sound possible.
This mic definitely sounds better when it's closer to you.
So I pick it up and bring it closer to me.
Now it should sound a significantly better.
Now of this microphone does have headphone outputs
for monitoring,
and it also has a headphone monitoring volume dial
right here on the front of it.
And it works with the Rode Connect app,
which in many ways is like a virtual Rodecaster pro.
Super cool stuff you can do in there.
And if you want to get it positioned more closely to you,
the stand is magnetic.
So it just pops off
and then you can just mount this to a boom arm like normal
and position it wherever you want.
So some cool versatility there,
but it does not come with a boom arm.
So if you want to do that,
you have to either already have one or buy one.
And the next microphone that I want to compare is of course,
the Blue Yeti,
because this is sort of the USB microphone
that started at all for a lot of people.
Talked about this in some other videos.
This is a Blue Yeti that was purchased prior to Blue
being purchased by Logitech.
And I bring that up because I have heard
that since the Logitech acquisition, the Yeti,
even though it looks the same and is priced the same,
doesn't necessarily sound the same
or is not necessarily built with the same materials.
I haven't investigated that for myself,
but I'm bringing that up
because this is a pre Logitech Blue Yeti,
so you can hear what this sounds like.
These usually sell for about a 100 to $120,
depending on the model that you get and of course,
where you purchase it from.
It does have a lot of different pickup patterns
and it comes in a stand that makes it easy to position
so that way it's close to your mouth.
So you don't have that problem with the USB mini
where it's just too far away because it's so tiny.
So here's the Maono microphone,
and this is the Blue Yeti and the cardioid pickup pattern.
Just like with the Rode microphone,
what you'll probably notice is once you bump up in price
with USB microphones you do get additional features.
Not only does this have the pickup patterns,
but it also has a headphone output
and different dials to control your monitoring
even has a gain dial to control the gain output
coming from the microphone.
I still think the Yeti's a great USB option
for a lot of people because it is plug and play
and it comes with a stand.
So it's just this one thing right here,
and then you're done
and you can kind of handle a lot of situations with it.
But that being said,
I haven't yeti used a brand new Yeti.
So I don't know if the quality has changed since then.
But this is the Blue Yeti.
And then we're gonna go back to the Maono
and then one more USB comparison.
And the last microphone that I want to compare to
is the Shure MV7.
Which is sort of silly
because it's so much more expensive than this.
This entire setup was under $50 at the time I purchased it.
This microphone usually sells for about $250.
So I know that that's kind of absurd.
They're not really direct competitors,
but it is another USB microphone that I happen to have.
So I want to try that out.
And just because I know people will probably ask.
Reportersstore.com to get the colored windscreens
that fit on the MV7 and the SM7B.
Not sponsored, not affiliated.
I just have now purchased
quite a few microphone windscreens from them.
They have all these cool colors, reportersstore.com.
They're awesome.
And so now we're on the Shure MV7
and one of the big reasons
that I did get a custom windscreen for it
is because if you remember the standard one
that comes with it,
which is not nearly as good as this one
and thick as is this one
that comes with the Maono microphone, is really crappy.
It's just a terrible little wind screen that does no good.
And there's a huge plosive problems
with this microphone.
Now, some things about the Shure MV7,
I did do an entire like 35 minute review on it,
but to cut to the chase.
It is a USB microphone that offers also XLR functionality.
So it's a good choice because it could potentially grow
with you if you want to use it
in a different setup later on.
And it also works with the Shure Motive app.
It's just running into GarageBand right now,
like everything else, but the Motive app is pretty cool.
Kind of like the Rode Connect app.
It gives you a lot of flexibility with setting up
and dialing in the sound of your microphone
to get it to sound exactly the way that you want it.
And you've got some controls right here,
built on the microphone.
You can switch between headphone monitoring
and the actual volume of the microphone.
And there's like this little touch interface.
And of course it does have a headphone output as well.
So for your $250,
you are getting a pretty decent microphone.
It just comes with the worst wind screen ever,
which every time I talk about this microphone
until Shure fixes that,
I will bring it up because it shure drives me crazy.
But otherwise this is a great microphone.
It is just really, really expensive.
And when someone is looking to upgrade their audio
and get a new microphone,
the idea of saying,
hey, yeah, just spend $250.
They'll be like,
maybe I don't want to spend $250 because that sounds insane.
And that's where something like this Maono AU-A04
could come in handy.
Because again, as I've been stressing,
you get this whole setup for a relatively reasonable price
and it's a decent sounding microphone.
I would definitely recommend this to someone on a budget.
Now I do always recommend
getting the best thing you can afford
when it comes to any kind of audio and video gear.
But I also do understand that budgets are a thing
that exists in the world.
And sometimes you need to just get the best thing you can
for the lowest price possible.
In this case,
this is everything you get for the price.
I think it sounds pretty decent.
I think it works pretty well.
It'll definitely get the job done for the foreseeable future
until you decide maybe you want to upgrade
to something else after that.
So this probably won't be the best microphone you ever use
or the best microphone in the world,
but it could potentially be the best microphone
you've owned up until now.
And it could hold you over
until you need to upgrade into the future.
And who knows,
you could end up just being really happy with this.
And if you don't abuse it
and stress out the boom arm and stuff,
it could last a really long time.
And then this could just be your main microphone
for a long time.
And if you know me,
you know that lately I've become kind of obsessed
with microphones and comparing microphones
and searching out new ones and budget options
and all that, it's become a problem.
But if you want to bear the fruits of that problem,
which is probably not the best way I could phrase that.
And you don't think that the Maono microphone
is the one for you,
then maono one of these microphones
in this playlist of mic reviews and comparisons.
It might be the perfect option for you.
(we're ending with that same music again because I think it's really catchy and funny)