6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
overpriced and underwhelmed
Date of Review: Apr 16, 2009
The Bottom Line: maybe if you don't have a mic but not recommended if your looking to upgrade from your original crappy white pc mic...not worth more than $10 in my eopinion
I paid $35 for this mic at Best Buy. I could've gotten if for less online but even for $25 it's overpriced.
The construction is okay but the sound quality is poor. It's very weak so you're almost certainly going to need to turn on the 20dB mic boost in addition to maxing out the mic volume on your pc or laptop if u expect it to pick up your voice from anywhere greater than just a few inches away. And the unfortunate consequence of this is that every breath sound you utter will also be picked up at that distance. Its a noise cancellation mic so you're going to have to choose between moving away from the mic and having to raise your voice or getting closer and having it pick up more unwanted noise. Also, there are no controls on this mic save for the power button so any adjustment in volume will have to be done with your pc or laptop mixer or volume control. But like I said, for this to work you're going to have to max out everything so it will probably be just a one-time thing.
Overall, I expected a lot more for my $35. I just plugged both in and tested them and, honestly, if you blindfolded me and asked me to choose which one was which I couldn't do it, except that the analog mic is actually louder.
On a side note I orginally purchased a usb headset-mic combo, Microsoft's Lifechat 2000, on a recommendation from a friend but I didn't like it at all. The fit behind the ears was terrible and I felt like it was going to go flying off if I turned my head abruptly as they were so loose. In addition, the arms rested on my ears and I could see that after a very short time that could become uncomfortable. I say "could" because I brought them back the next day because I was so disappointed with them.