A kit including a Neewer NW-700 Mic, 48V Phantom Power Supply, Boom Scissor Arm Stand with Shock Mount and Pop Filter, and all the cables needed to connect to a 3.5mm jack for the low, low price of £36.99 but is it any good?
PRODUCT: Neewer NW-700 Condenser Microphone Kit
FROM: Amazon
COST: £36.99
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I don’t like the sound of my own voice, and I get the feeling no fancy mic will change that, however I feel my current sf-666 microphone which weighs about 3grams and is available for the princely sum of £5.86 from Aliexpress and £6.97 from eBay isn’t helping me any.
I kind of wanted to stick with 3.5mm jack, I’ve got a love hate relationship with USB, and figure at this price point, expecting a decent microphone and USB sound card may be a bit of a stretch.
What’s In The Box?
The Neewer NW-700 Condenser Microphone Kit comes with a lot of stuff for your money;
- Black Microphone, with silver head
- Black 48V Phantom Power Supply
- NW-35 Boom Scissor Arm Stand
- Shock Mount
- Pop Filter & Foam Microphone Cover
- XLR Male to Female Cable
- XLR Female to 3.5mm Cable
so that’s everything you need to get the microphone attached to your PC and in an optimal position in front of your mouth to get recording.
Look & Feel
This microphone feels nice, it’s got weight, but not too heavy looks good, a damn sight better than my rubberised plastic sf-666 did and fits the shock mount beautifully, again something my sf-666 didn’t leading to pops when I kicked the desk.
The extras are great, the pop filter fits onto the boom arm, however I’ll probably end up getting a wrap around pop filter at a later date as it takes up a lot of space particularly when the mic is not being used and pushed under my monitor.
The boom arm is great allowing you to position the mic at an optimal position, however could really do with some cable securing system, I’ve used velcro cable ties on mine to run the cables down the arm.
Talking of the cables, They are both great quality and very long, giving you loads of options as to where you position your boom arm. Previously with the sf-666 I had to secure my boom arm next to the PC so the cable could run up the arm, the cable on the NW-700 will allow me to take the cables to the opposite side of the desk before running up the boom arm making it much more convenient when not in use.
How Does It Sound?
Obviously the most important part, and I think I’ve told you before, I’m not an audiophile so take that onboard.
Out of curiosity, I plugged the mic directly into the 3.5mm jack on my PC and it worked fine, the sound quality was kind of thin, very similar to what you would get with a built in mic or indeed the sf-666 but it worked, so if you find yourself needing to do a zoom call and not wanting plug in the phantom, have at it.. With the phantom power plugged in however the sound is much more dynamic.
With my setup there is a noticeable bit of noise, which I guess would be a deal breaker however every piece of audio recording worth it’s salt has noise suppression capabilities, which on both the Realtek software and in OBS studio works very well to remove all traces of the noise.
I fiddled with the volume settings in windows control panel to get the sound level just right and the sound itself is pretty good out of the box without any filters except sound suppression it’s very acceptable for an amateur streamer like myself.
I’m sure if you knew what you were doing, or were good at YouTube trial and error there’s a million filters you could use to really make your voice really pop using this microphone, I’ll play with that later!
I used this mic in my latest stream, so if you want to hear it, check that out.
Considering you get everything in the box you’ll need for a long time for under £40 and this microphone looks the biz, I really don’t have too many complaints, it beats the hell out of the sf-666 I was using. There’s going to be a lot of trial and error with filters to get the best out of it but overall a really good purchase for the price.
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