My experience with Modmic USB

I purchased the modmic USB in 2020. I used it exclusively to chat in games. I owned this microphone for three months. Here are my observations:

1: The design lacks sufficient thought. The inline mute button is located too close to the mic body, placing it at an awkward spot, uncomfortable to use and very difficult to see the red LED indicator. Also, I placed the magnetic base for it pretty far forward on the earcup of my headphone, but the flex body still isn’t quite long enough for where I wanted the mic placed either.

2: This mic still requires its own cable (obviously), meaning you are teathered with two cables, one from your headphones and the other from the mic. Included are some cable clips to attach the mic cable to your headphone cable, so they don’t turn into a spaghetti mess. When the cable clips are used to hold the mic line next to my headphone cable (Audiotechnica ATH-M40X) the cabling was much heavier and often got caught on one of the clips as I moved around (just at my desk, obviously not up walking about). This REALLY was a much bigger downside than I would have thought - it took my modest, but decent headphones and made them super bulky and not easy to wear like an integrated headset would be - it was the worst of both worlds, instead of the best of both worlds.

3: The sound quality left a lot to be desired. In game, teammates often told me my audio was too quiet. I tried omnidirectional vs cardiod. I turned up the “Microphone volume” in windows settings all the way, but the mic has no gain control, and sounds like you’re talking quietly into a tin can. I finally downloaded equalizer APO, which let me add some gain, and that helped the volume, but the sound quality was still severely lacking, as the extra gain also magnified its flaws. Even in cardiod pickup mode, teammates started to complain about my keystrokes and mouse clicks in chat.

4: Finally there is the lackluster overall build quality. After just a couple of months of relatively ginger treatment, while tweaking (lightly, I wasn’t exactly gorrilla-gripping the darned thing) the positioning in an attempt to improve sound, it simply stopped working. Now I have an awkward $80 paperweight.

All in all, for the steep price, I was really unimpressed. The sound is not any better than the mic on any cheap gaming headset. When paired on a headphone it is clunkier, bulkier, and less easy to wear than an integrated headset mic, and it isn’t really any easier to use either. I feel like there are better options for the same price if you want to game with your favorite headphones, and also chat with teammates.

As a replacement, I have since purchased a Fifine T669. It was cheaper, comes with stand, boom arm, shock mount, and pop filter. I bought it because all the reviews I’d seen said it should be MUCH better sounding. Being $30 LESS expensive than the modmic USB, I didn’t have super high expectations, but it could scarcely have been be worse!

The T669 has served me well since January of this year. It sees almost daily use. There is a gain control right on the mic body, and it sits on its swing arm mounted to my desk, swung out of the way when not in use. The sound quality is quite superior, and my headphones are much easier to wear without the bulky cord and clip assembly. There are some obviously cheap Chinese made components like the stand that serve their purpose, but won’t be winning any awards any time soon, but the mic itself is lightyears better in sound, convenience, control, and overall useability.

one thing that helped me with my modmic was to turn off noise cancelling/background software and boost the sensitivety up a notch. It went from a cheap sounding mic to a ASMR experience (so ive been told from my friends) hope this helps

I am glad that helped. When I had my modmic, I had no such software, and like I said in the OP, I boosted sensitivity as much as I could to very little avail.

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Has been my experience with ModMics.
Having been on the receiving end of ModMics a few times, I hate them, a lot.

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Ditching my modmic for a real microphone was one of the happiest moments I’ve had when upgrading audio gear.

Had a similar experience on the Modmic USB. Got mine in mid 2019, it broke around mid 2020 before completing 1 year. Unfortunately international buyer so not covered by antlion.

Bought a cheap USB stand mice in AliExpress, around $25 for a simple 3 point stand with volume dial. Better sound and it’s holding quite well so far.