greetings earthlings today i'm back with a re-review of a microphone that i labeled
as one of the worst microphones i've ever used that microphone is the cad u1
and if you are interested in this microphone it has a suggested msrp of dollars but it
seems like it goes for significantly cheaper i bought it for 16 so i'll throw some links
in the description down below if you want to check it out also for this review i'm running
the microphone directly into my mac my gain is set at 75 percent recording 16 bit 48 kilohertz
i will not do any kind of post processing but i may boost it a little bit in post
so check the doobly-doo to see what i didily did now let's talk about what comes in the box
of course you are going to get the microphone which comes with a six foot
usb cable permanently attached you'll get a desktop tripod with a microphone
clip already installed and a bit of documentation but it turns out to just be a brochure for other
cad products then as far as the build quality it really doesn't feel amazing but given what
i paid for it i really shouldn't be complaining it has an all plastic body it does have a metal mesh
grille which doesn't have any give to it which is nice directly next to the grille you will
find a light to let you know that the microphone is plugged in and getting power and while you're
recording it will blink red the entire time which is terribly annoying beneath that you'll find the
on off switch near the end of the microphone you'll find the permanently attached six foot
cable and i measured it to be six feet even though it says it should be 10 feet and if it matters to
you this microphone is made in china i also want to provide a side-by-side comparison against the
original and the one that i have now because they are quite different you can tell it has a
different body it has a different switch it has a different grille and if i am not mistaken it also
has a different capsule so to me it seems like the cad u1 is completely different from the cad u1
i think they should label this cad u1v2 so people know it's a different microphone because it does
not seem the same at all then as far as the specs this microphone has a cardioid polar pattern
a frequency response of 80 hertz to 16 kilohertz a sensitivity of around negative 53 db and a
conversion rate of 16 bit and 48 kilohertz now i am rotating around the cad u1 to 90 degrees so you
can hear the off axis rejection and coloration continuing around the microphone to 180 degrees
here's the rear of the mic continuing around to the second 90 degree angle here we are and then
rotating and ending at the front of the microphone now let's go ahead and test the plosive rejection
of this thing please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto
now i'm right on top of the microphone almost clipping and this is what the proximity effect
on this thing sounds like now i'm about three inches off of the mic with it pointed at the
corner of my mouth and here's how it sounds about one foot away from the microphone about two feet
away from the microphone and about four feet away from the cad u1 now i am typing on a keyboard
with gatoron blue switches to see how much of my voice versus how much of the keyboard it picks up
and for the gaming folk now i am typing on the sad w keys and the space bar keys
now here is how this microphone sounds in a well-treated room
and here is how the microphone sounds in a completely untreated space
now i have the mic on the provided desktop tripod i'm going to place this directly in
front of me pointed at my mouth about a foot away i'll tap on my desk so you can
see how much of that it can reject and in a real world situation if you were typing this
is how that would sound while you're talking and using the desktop tripod now i have the mic back
on one of the scissor boom arms and i'll tap on my desk again so we can hear how much it rejects here
and tapping on the boom arm okay and then tapping on a keyboard or typing on a keyboard again
a lot better than if you are using the provided desktop stand
now i'm going to tap on the body to see if there are any kind of resonant frequencies
i really doubt that this will come up but since it is a handheld form factor
i will pass it back and forth between my hands so you can hear what kind
of handling noise rejection it offers which it seems like none
now i'm going to go ahead and throw the cad u1 in my box of doom isolation cabinet and slowly
increase the gain for the mic so that we can see what kind of noise floor this thing has and yes
this microphone is not plugged in and you're listening to the camera mic magic
all right with the sample rate set at the only option available of 48 kilohertz and the io
buffer of 64 samples we have a 7.1 millisecond round trip latency or two and a half milliseconds
output jumping up to 128 samples we have 9.7 milliseconds round trip or 3.8 milliseconds output
and at 256 we have a 15 millisecond round trip or six and a half milliseconds output
now we're going to do a quick spoken word comparison between the microphone that we're
reviewing and a couple of other microphones on the market i've selected what i think are the direct
competition to the cadio one and that way we'll know how it stacks up against the competition
we'll start on the mic that we're reviewing this is the cad u1 16 bit 48 kilohertz gain set at 75
and here's how it sounds now i am on the original cad u1 about three inches off
my gain is set at one percent and here is how it's sounding if you can tell we are clipping if
you can tell there is a high pitched wine and if you can tell it is still picking up radio signals
i am thrilled to know that my opinion holds up that the original cad u1
is still the worst microphone i have ever used gain is at one percent and i'm clipping
okay back again on the cad u1 nothing has changed here's how it sounds check the lower third let's
jump to another mic now i am on the behringer xm 8500 which is an xlr dynamic mic this goes
for about 25 i'm then running this over an xlr cable into the focusrite 18 i20 second gen gain
set at around 4 o'clock and here's how this sounds compared to the cad u1 and if you hear this noise
that is somebody blowing up a bouncy castle outside or something i don't know what they're
doing they may be shredding humans or some i don't know let's do more comparisons in case you forgot
how the current cad u1 sounds like this is what it sounds like let's jump to another microphone
comparison now i am on the samsung q2u which goes for about 70 running over usb directly into my mac
gain is set at 50 16 bit 48 kilohertz and here is how this microphone sounds compared to the
new cad u1 we have another microphone comparison to do so i wanted to let you cleanse your palette
this is what the cad u1 sounds like three inches off gain at 75 percent let's jump to another one
now i am on the audio technica atr 2100 x-usb this is another xlr and usb dynamic mic this goes for
about 100 3 inches off connected directly to my mac with my gain set at 61 percent also recording
16 bit 48 kilohertz and here is how this sounds and compares to the cad u1 let's jump back and
do one more i think and this should be the final microphone in the comparison you all know what
it's going to be but first up this is the cad u1 let's now do a completely fair comparison
and finally we are on the neumann u87ai cardioid polar pattern no filters engaged connected to the
18i20 gain set at 11 o'clock and here's how this compares to the cad u1 totally a fair comparison
definitely worthwhile and not to be used as a control from video to video i know people looking
at the cad u1 are saying ah well how does it compare to the u87 let's go to the music test uh
i've got nothing left to sing about and all the pop punk songs they hate their town
maybe it's time that i hate my town as well cause there's nothing to sing about
yeah i've run out of things to talk about i guess i could sing about bigfoot or ufos or aliens or
just go full on pop punk i hate my town my mom won't buy me an xbox i just love pizza that's my
entire personality it really is i'm just through and through i'm stuck in 2001. it's pathetic let's
go to the conclusion well i think it's fair to say that the modern cad u1 is a massive and i mean
massive improvement over the original but i still think it is kind of rough and first up as far as
pros as my ac turns on i apologize for that i'm not gonna go shut it off the first thing has to
be the affordability this thing is incredibly affordable and i think that will be the main
factor that draws people to it the first thing that makes people even considerate the second pro
will be the fact that it is plug and play that's going to make this thing incredibly appealing and
easy to use for beginners because they don't need to get all funky with a bunch of downloads and
plug-ins and drivers and all that stuff but then as far as cons the microphone has that typical usb
mic buzz which is just obnoxious also the plosive rejection on this thing is absolutely abysmal
the handling noise rejection is non-existent the on off switch is incredibly noisy so whoever
is listening to you is going to know when you're muting or unmuting whether you're streaming or if
you're in a conference call and the off switch drew my attention to something when i switch
the microphone off it creates a high pitched buzz and it almost sounds like a synthesizer
i'm sure you can hear that and i also noticed that when i tapped on the desktop tripod so it's just
another quirk that this thing has that i think is a drawback and now what are my overall thoughts
and opinions of the modern cad u1 frankly i didn't like it for any of the musical applications
on the electric guitar somehow it exaggerated that usb buzz it made it worse i would never use it on
electric guitar because of that on the acoustic guitar i think it is passable but it comes across
very low detail and dull it's just not a very appealing sound it's nothing that i would reach
for if i had other options available next up for singing again i wasn't a big fan of it here
it just comes across low detail dull uninteresting and it's not flattering it's nothing that i would
be reaching for if i have any alternatives available if it's all that you got i think
you could make it work you will just need to get a bit creative with the eq to get the right sound
for your mix and finally for spoken word i think that's the best application for this microphone
now don't get me wrong do i think this microphone sounds amazing no do i think there are much better
sounding microphones out there yes but this microphone is incredibly affordable technically
it functions and the biggest thing that i want to say i don't think it's offensive or painful
to listen to so as far as meeting that really important threshold of getting good enough audio
that's not painful to listen to for your listeners i think this does that at a very reasonable price
and to wrap up what i recommend the cad u1 maybe and no let's start with a no if you are looking at
this microphone thinking you want to add it to a mic locker for music applications no i would
not recommend it i did not like it on any of those use cases so i would say look elsewhere
look at the xm 8500 and a usb interface then the reason i'm saying maybe is i don't think
it's an offensive sound for spoken word it's also incredibly affordable so if you are looking for a
dollar plug-and-play spoken word microphone i kind of recommend it the reason i'm hesitant
to say yes i would recommend it is because of the flaws of this thing the plosive rejection
on this thing is pretty bad so you will need to have a really good microphone technique and even
though i do have pretty good mic technique i'm fairly certain i popped the mic a couple of times
most beginners who are looking at a 20 mic are not going to have good mic technique so that
is a pretty big concern for me and i think it could be a big issue for beginners the second
big drawback is the handling noise and shock rejection because it comes with that desktop
tripod that's what most people will be using especially beginners 20 bucks buy the mic put
it on the stand you're going to run into issues with tapping on your desk typing on your keyboard
and popping the microphone so although it's cheap although it's affordable i think it can work well
for spoken word if you are on a really tight budget i think you need to be very conscience
conscious conscious while you're using it not conscious microphones don't have consciences
you need to be aware of what you're doing while you're using this microphone because you will pop
it and you will bump your desk and it will be very apparent while you're talking in a voice
chat or something that is all that i've got for you today i hope that didn't come across
too harsh i should give props where it's due i am thrilled that cad made such a big improvement
over the original cad u1 it doesn't pick up radio frequencies it doesn't clip at one percent
this is a completely different microphone this is a microphone that is worth the 20
dollars that i paid for it the original was not worth the box that it was shipped in
this one is worth the money at 20 bucks but if you found this video fun interesting or helpful
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all so much for watching thank you for listening i will talk to you in a week probably okay bye