- Maybe you remember last year
when I purchased the Neewer NW-800 condenser microphone
for a review
and this gold microphone quickly became the gold standard
for terrible sounding microphones.
(laughing) If you have this microphone
and it works for you and you love it
and it sounds great, that's awesome
you should enjoy it, it's a good price.
For me, mine definitely does not sound great.
As I've said in a few other videos,
I think that the quality control
is just all over the place with these
cause some people do have some
that I've heard sound pretty decent,
mine, just straight up, doesn't.
Now in that original video,
I got a lot of recommendations saying,
hey, the NW-800 is okay but the NW-700,
that's where the good sound is.
So I went ahead and ordered the NW-700
and I don't know if this is a precursor for what to expect,
but this is exactly how it was delivered
as in just this package opened
with no tape or anything like that.
This is just how the guy handed it to me.
Now, the price of these microphones fluctuates quite a bit.
So sometimes the NW-700 is more expensive
and sometimes the NW-800 is more expensive.
I was able to purchase the NW-700 for about $20
but check the link in the description
to see what the price is today in your region,
because they do fluctuate all the time,
but if you remember my video on the 800
or if you watch that unboxing,
this just comes in a nondescript cardboard box
and it just says NW-800 microphone on it.
They don't really make a big deal
about it being a condenser microphone
other than that it is listed a little bit on the box,
kind of small
and it is listed on the product description sales page
as a condenser microphone.
The NW-700 on the other hand comes in a box
with these very sweet early two thousands era graphics
and it's got some nice term here two word art
to tell you that it is specifically a condenser microphone
and the reason, the condensed reason why that matters,
is if you saw my video on the Road NT1 condenser,
you know that I tore this one apart, literally,
I actually took the NW-800 apart
to show that the capsule in here
while it is a condenser capsule
it's an electorate condenser capsule.
So it's not the same thing that you're gonna find
in something like the Road NT1, the Sennheiser MK 4,
or any other higher quality condenser microphone.
Technically it is a condenser
but it's not really what you're thinking of
when you're thinking, hey, condenser microphone,
condenser microphone.
Hmm, is not really the same thing.
It's kind of like how a Golf Cart
and a Ferrari are both vehicles.
Now, the reason I bring that up
is because the NW-700 is very much claiming
to be a condenser microphone.
So let's see if it sounds a little bit different
and then let's take it apart and see
if it's actually constructed differently than the NW-800.
These microphones come in a lot of different configurations
and kits at different price points,
but in both cases, I bought the basic one
that comes with the microphone, a cable
and a little shock mount.
So, let's see in here, we have customer service, nice,
all the info about pickup patterns and frequency response
and all that stuff.
And it does mention that you need Phantom Power
because it is a condenser microphone.
We get a cable, this is an XLR to 3.5 millimeter cable
not an unhelpful cable to have.
However, please don't think
that you can plug this directly into your computer,
you do need some sort of interface or mixer.
In this case, I'll be using the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2,
which is a very common interface.
Normally I use the Roadcaster Pro
but sometimes I get a lot of questions saying, hey,
is the Rodecaster really not coloring the signal at all?
Is the Rodecaster adding in any equalization?
So for today, just to be clear,
both microphone's gonna be running
through the Focusrite Scarlett into Adobe Audition
with no effects, no processing, nothing like that at all.
So we're not gonna use this cable we're gonna use
regular XLR cables.
You get a foam wind screen.
This is actually a higher quality one
than the one that comes with the Shure MV7,
you get a shock mount
and these are shockingly nice little shock mounts,
it's the exact same one that comes with the NW-700.
You just open these little clamps right here,
slide the microphone right in.
The microphones themselves
don't have any mounts built into them,
so you do need a shock mount or a clamp or something.
And then there is this little five eighths
to three-eighths inch adapter in the shock mount.
What do they say about making new friends
but keep the old one is silver the other's gold,
there we go.
Here's the NW-700.
It's a sharp look and microphone,
overall actually the build quality
is very similar to the NW-800.
If I had to lean towards one or the other,
I would actually say,
this feels a little more solid and durable
while it's still very plasticky,
like this looks like it's metal,
but it's just painted plastic
or it's at least very, very thin metal.
But the bodies, the housing, the connector
is all basically the same.
The only difference is up here at the top
where the capsules are.
And on these microphones,
both of these are side address microphone.
So that means you speak into the front of them
as is the case with most condensers,
don't speak into the top, don't set someone behind it,
speaking to the front.
In this case, the front is the side
with the Neewer logo on it.
And there we go.
And then you can position it where you need it.
For today's test, I'm gonna be running the NW-700
through the blue XLR cable.
It's also the silver microphone,
so they look pretty different
right into channel one on the Scarlet
and I'll be running the NW-800 through the red cable,
into channel two on the Scarlet.
I do get a lot of questions about these colored XLR cables.
The brand is Dremake on Amazon,
there's links in the description.
They're pretty good, they're super affordable,
they look great on camera.
They're not the highest quality cables
meaning they can be prone to interference
and I did have one of them fail on me.
So it depends on how vain you wanna be.
I want a cool looking cable
or do you want the best quality cable?
But I like these, they're cheap I just buy a bunch of them.
So now I've got both microphones
connected to the Focusrite Scarlet 2i2,
and I've got Phantom Power turned on.
I'm seeing a signal in Adobe Audition,
no effects, no processing, nothing like that.
and let's switch over to the Neewer NW-700.
You're currently listening to the Road Videomic NTG
which is placed on a boom out of frame,
and now this is the NW-700.
To be totally honest,
I'm really impressed with how this microphone sounds
especially compared to the NW-800
which when I turned this on for the first time
I was blown away by how bad it sounds
and we'll look at that in just a second.
So, as you can see over here,
I'm really about a fist distance away from the microphone,
this is pretty much how I would use it
if I were doing something like a podcast
or something like that.
Of course, if you're worried about plosives
you could always position the microphone slightly off axis
as long as it's still pointed at your mouth,
then all the breath pop pup will go pass the microphone
and it's still gonna pick you up pretty clearly.
So this could be a cool setup for streaming
or just being a little more conversational with someone.
Of course you could also mount this on a boom arm
or something like that.
And of course it does come with this wind screen,
so, if we do plosives pop pop,
Peter Piper pitched a podcast,
I don't know how much difference
the hit pop filter actually made
other than making the microphone
not look quite as nice on camera, puh, puh, puh, puh.
It definitely does reduce the plosives a bit,
but I think it's more effective
to just position the microphone at an angle puh puh puh
I think that's the better pop filter.
And then you get the aesthetic appeal of the microphone
cause it's a great looking mic.
Sometimes I get made fun of
for caring about how microphones look
and obviously the sound quality is the most important thing
when it comes to a microphone,
but in a world where a lot of people
are doing video podcasts and streaming and stuff like that,
your microphone is a visual part of your appearance,
your brand, whatever you wanna call it
and having a nice looking microphone
is definitely not a bad thing.
So this sounds pretty darn good.
So this is the NW-700 and,
this is the NW-800.
And the gain on both my mics through the Focusrite
is right at about the 12 o'clock position.
Now, what I don't wanna say
is that there's absolutely no use for the NW-800,
if you're doing something
where you need an old timely radio announcer voice,
like, "Our boys are going into war
and they're gonna defeat the enemy." (old timey radio voice)
This could be a perfect microphone for that
but if you want something that's gonna make people
not want to just tear their ear buds out
or stop listening to your show,
the NW-700 has a significantly more pleasing sound
and just a better, more well-rounded sound overall.
So if you have to choose between these two microphones
and you're on a budget,
honestly, I was expecting to just have another microphone
to kind of make fun of,
but I think this is actually a viable option
especially if you are again on a budget.
Now since the NW-700 does good,
I'm gonna put a wild cart into the mix.
So let's look at the Rode NT1.
This is probably just about the least expensive
legit high quality condenser microphone.
If you haven't seen my full review on this,
definitely go check that out.
This usually retails for somewhere between 250, $260,
again depending on what kind of kit you get with it,
it's totally different construction,
it's in a league of its own,
but in terms of sound, this is the NW-700,
and this is the Road NT1.
Again, none of these microphones have any effects
or anything like that,
I definitely listening between the two of these,
I think the Rode has a much more pleasing sound overall.
This is quickly becoming
one of my all time favorite microphones it's so, so good.
However, for the price, this microphone the NW-700
basically costs the sales tax of,
if you're in the United States at least,
the sales tax of the NT1,
then I think that is a pretty darn good deal.
So, if I leave the gain at 12 o'clock
and put the microphone,
I mean, this is 18 inches or so away from me.
This is what it sounds like,
if I increase the gain a little bit, you can definitely hear
as is the case with many condenser microphones,
it's gonna pick more of the reverb in the room,
more of the room tone,
but I could probably turn this to maybe like two o'clock
and then sit fairly comfortably kind of far away from it
and get a pretty decent sound.
If I put it back to 12 o'clock
and I sort of stay within the six to 12 inch range
of the microphone,
I think I'm getting a pretty usable sound.
And again, this is with absolutely no EQ or anything,
this is just straight out of the package.
Let's talk about directionality here.
Since this is a front address microphone,
it will pick up if you're a little bit off axis.
So if I'm turning the microphone,
my voice isn't changing too much right here,
but as soon as I go to past 180 degrees,
it's not really picking me up at all
and if I try to talk into the back of the microphone,
it sounds weird.
And if you're the person
who tries to talk into the top of the microphone,
it's gonna sound very, very strange.
So if you use the microphone as intended
and you speak into the front of it, the front side of it,
where the label is, it's gonna sound pretty darn good.
Now, while I am actually pretty impressed
with the sound of this microphone, especially for the price
I did just take it out of the box today,
so I don't know what that means
one year, two year, five years from now
where like the Rode NT1 comes with a 10 year warranty,
they stand behind that microphone, it's not going anywhere.
I'm not sure that that would be the case with this one.
If you've been using the NW-700
for a significant chunk of time
and you have a good or a bad experience with it,
definitely let us all know in the comments
so that way you can add in that long-term review
but just straight out of the package
especially for the price,
this sounds, this sounds great.
I think it's great.
Now I wanna put this mic through the same treatment
that I put the NW-800 through.
So let's switch back to the NT1 for a second
while I take one apart.
Now if you remember the video where I took the NW-800 apart,
they come apart pretty easily.
Now, I'm definitely not recommending
that you take your microphone apart, but I'll do it
so you don't have to take years apart
and we'll see what the difference is inside of these things.
So this is the NW-800,
they're just two screws on either side
and then the mic itself comes out
and you can see just like last time in the previous video,
you can see the electric condenser capsule there,
it's very flimsy, it's very plasticky,
it's very cheap.
So this is the actual microphone you're getting,
not really anything impressive.
And we heard how it sounds.
Am I just going to shock myself?
No, here we go.
Here's my electret condenser microphone.
It sounds pretty terrible.
So let's then compare that build to the NW-700.
I almost feel bad about this
because this is a nicer more usable microphone,
but the parts are identical.
The function of the parts is the same
but this is the NW-800, this is the 700.
They are actually slightly different shapes
in slightly different builds.
The body, tube, housing thing is exactly the same
just with different logo printed on it.
The circuit boards are significantly different actually.
I wasn't really expecting to see this much of a difference.
So the NW-700 circuit board looks like this,
I don't know what it means, but the NW-800 looks like this.
And if we flip them over and look at the other side,
the NW-800 has nothing on it,
whereas the NW-700 has these two capacitors
which I believe are what's required
for it to use Phantom Power.
So it's just sort of different.
The NW-800 as two capacitors on the front,
this has them on the back.
It's definitely not the same microphone
just in a different housing.
Now the most important thing though,
let's see what the capsule looks like on the NW-700
and it just slides out.
Oh boy, let's see what we got here.
Oh, okay, it's the same, but different, interesting.
So it's still, again, I'm not an electrical pro guy,
it's still, to me actually
looks like an electret condenser microphone.
The capsule that's in this NT1
aside from being a circular shape, looks nothing like these,
but they're different, they're different colors.
And if you look at the back of these capsules,
you can actually see that they're clearly just different.
They're constructed different, they have different wires,
different inputs.
So I guess even if this one is an electret condenser
or a super cheap condenser,
it is of a higher quality than the NW-800.
Now why we've got this microphone apart?
I do wanna point out
that the documentation that came with it does say
that it features a high quality back electorate condenser
which means, it's not trying to save
that it is anything other than
an electret condenser microphone.
However, still important to note
that none of the sales pages that I found online
list this as an electret to condenser,
they all list as a condenser microphone.
Just thought that was important to clarify.
So let's see if I can put this back together
and get it working again.
Hey hello.
Hey it's still works.
Yay, I didn't break it!
I know it didn't do anything to it,
but at least I didn't break it.
So here's kind of where I land on the NW-700.
I don't know that I'd wanna actually land on it.
Cause it is mostly made out of plastic
and I would probably break it,
but philosophically, where I land on it
is that it's actually a very usable microphone
for the money.
And as I mentioned earlier,
if you're choosing between both of these,
you just search for inexpensive microphones online
and these two pop up, definitely go for the NW-700.
There's no way I can recommend the NW-800
unless you just like causing yourself pain
or you want something that sounds bad
on purpose for some reason,
or maybe you just want it as a prop or a set decoration
and you like the gold look, definitely it's great.
If you actually need the sound from it, not so much.
This very, very usable
and you could EQ it to suit your voice a little bit better.
Then when it comes to any kind of gear
I would never want to make anyone feel like
the stuff they make is not good
because they're using a certain piece of gear
or because it's not at a certain price point.
If you use something, no matter what it is,
and it works for you and it delivers good results,
then it is good.
What I like to do though
is help people find the most effective use of their money,
and their energy and their time.
And so if you're on an extremely limited budget,
but you just want to have a better microphone
than something that's built in
and you maybe wanna start a podcast,
do a little bit of streaming,
this is definitely a great choice.
Now you do need an interface of some kind to run it through.
The Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 that I'm using right now
is many times the cost of this microphone.
The Focusrite Scarlet sold a lot of interfaces,
sell for about 80 to a hundred dollars.
So you're probably going to spend more money
on an interface than the actual microphone,
but at least you can always keep your interface
and then potentially upgrade your microphone in the future.
But what I think you wanna avoid doing
is upgrading to another $30 microphone
and then a $40 microphone, then a $30 microphone,
eventually you're gonna end up spending hundreds of dollars
on cheap microphones that never quite get you what you want
when it might be worth it to just save up a little more
and get a high quality option from the start,
if that's possible.
But I'm happy that the NW-700 sounds very usable
and very, very decent.
I was going to feel bad if it was just,
hey, it's time for me to rip on Neewer again.
So this one, definitely the way to go,
this one, definitely not the way to go.
Now, if you're still not sure
which microphone you wanna go with,
I do have an entire playlist
of microphone reviews and comparisons.
So if you like the side-by-side comparison,
definitely check that out
and you might find the exact right microphone for you.
(swanky royalty free music)