Better than I hoped for.
​
"We wanted to do a lot of voice narration recording it into a computer. We also wanted to be able to record singing voice with good quality as all our other mics failed in this area badly.
I am a amateur sound engineer. The 1st headset we bought (not this brand) had a lot of line noise and identifiable static as a steady but low volume hum.Cyber Acoustics Monaural Headset/Microphone AC-101 We got what we paid for. What did we expect for under $20-. I really should have known better. Some of the times I actually do.
But we had to have real quality even if that meant spending real money. So I hunted and researched further. There were a lot of options available, my budget was around $50-. I found this "AV-JEFE AVL606 Professional Headset Microphone with 3.5mm & 6.3mm Stereo Plug for Camcorders, Digital Recorders, Bus PA Systems_ Gooseneck Boom for Precise Positioning"
It was the closest thing to my budget while being able to convince me its quality would be satisfying. There were a lot of cheaper boom microphones out there, but their description of its capabilities left me in doubt the quality would satisfy my picky professional needs. So I stretched my budget a bit and bought this $68- based on its description of its capabilities was exactly what I was needing.
It turns out the manufacture was totally right. Its fabulous. When we do voice narrative recordings, the recording is precisely as the original voice. It might sound like this should be a given, but when doing real high quality recordings I can identify the slight differences between the recording and the original sound of the speaker.
But with this boom microphone, they were exactly alike and I couldn't tell them apart if my eyes were closed. Thats saying something as I have trained ears. This microphone captured every nuance as it added NOTHING. If you can not hear the difference between the recording and the actual speaker, then the quality just is not able to get any better in my opinion.Your there so recognize it. Although you can spend tons more money on a boom microphone, I cant see it doing any better than this one as this is perfect and dead on as it is. This one missed nothing and added nothing.
I opened the files in my computer and examined its wave forms. Sound looks like sound, but the key for examination is the silence. When the speaker was inhaling or being silent, the wave form was very close to silent in its perfection. But it wasn't quite perfect. I could see a little bit of wave bumps during the silence although they were not hear-able. The laptop we used for recording is very cheap at $250- one year ago. Not a great platform to do your recordings into if you want to be real picky about them. I suspected my built in sound card was not of real high quality. So I tried a fascinating experiment.
I have a very high quality portable digital recorder. Sony ICD-UX512BLK Digital Flash Voice Recorder This thing is really top of the line, I've tested and proven it many times over. I decided to redo the recording tests, but run the microphone into the digital recorder instead of my cheap laptop.
First thing I discovered was this digital recorder is so sensitive, that with the microphones included battery box hooked up and on, it was too much. I had minor sound distortion. So I did it again with the microphone hooked directly into the recorder without the battery box hooked up. Now I found perfection. When I opened the files in my computer, the silence was perfect in its wave form. The digital recorder is a better recording platform than my cheap laptops built in sound card. Also the digital recorder lets you walk around anywhere you want without being tied to cords, as the recording quality is flawless.
So far all of the above is about recording voice narration. Now on to the singing recording tests. This microphone records singing easily as well as it does just voice talking. This is where all our other mics fell short. When the singing was recorded with the laptop, I had minor clipping and noticeable sound distortion. Not real bad but noticeable. Suspecting my laptop as the culprit and not the microphone, I repeated the singing tests recording them into the portable digital recorder. The results were greatly improved. They were perfect as I could not find fault with them. Again it worked better with no battery box hooked up.
In the near future I will need to buy a 2nd boom microphone for recording projects in a different location. WITHOUT HESITATION I will buy another one of these. You get what you pay for. If FANTASTIC and exact sound replication is what you want, then this is what it will cost while staying in the bargain range.
But be careful. This microphone can only do as good as the platform you are recording into. The digital recorder is likely to be a better recording platform than most built in sound cards, unless you have a super expensive computer.
Another thing I discovered with this boom microphone, is that it actually works better when its about 5-6
" away and to the side of your mouth. The distance from your thumb to your little finger when they are spread far apart.
Almost as far away as the flexible boom will let it go. This is where it actually picks up the best while adding no junk to the sound. Its too sensitive to be any closer. And this distance is great because it allows the microphone to miss picking up the air bursts that come straight out of your mouth that make for lousy recordings. Especially the "P" sound is famous for creating air bursts that are commonly picked up by sensitive microphones.
Since I don't like the visibility factor of a boom mic right in the middle of my face (theres always something better to be looking at), I really like that I can bend this one way low below my mouth and far off to the side of my face so I barely can not even see it, as its doing its best job of recording there. Thats worth a bunch to me.
All the cords seem to be of high quality as far as I can tell. No cheap feel to them. Not to thin or too thick. The cord that comes directly off the boom mic is about 3-4' long. Plenty long enough for me while recording with the digital portable recorder. Then you get about another 17' of extension length with the battery box and its cord. Plenty long enough to sit back from your computer as you record. I would rather coil up and twist tie the extra unneeded cord than not have enough. The battery box is not built into the cord thats directly connected to the boom mic, but the battery box is built into the 17' of extra cord that the mic cord plugs into. This worked fine for me. I was glad the mic cord was without the battery box, but could easily be plugged into the battery box if you need it, or just plain wanted it much longer.
The battery box has a small on and off switch built into it so you can save battery life when not using it. The switch quality and movement felt fine to me, being decently firm and clicking into place. However the very small black letters on the black battery box that say on or off, were invisible to my old weak eyes without a flashlight and magnifying glass. But I only had to see it once as I memorized its on-off directions after that. When its off, sound can NOT come out the cord. Its as if you unplugged it. That was ok with me.
I'm really not sure how much benefit having a built in battery will do for this microphone as our super sensitive portable digital recorder did not want it hooked up for best recording. I can see perhaps with other low sensitivity sound cards, this signal boost may well be very valuable. I did use it while recording into my laptop, but I forgot to try recording into my laptop without the battery box hooked for comparison. So I don't know clearly what benefit it may add or did add. I'll let another reviewer go there.
I definitely did like that all recordings are NOT forced to go through the battery box. I like options and choices. For our $68- dollar mic purchase, this was everything I wanted it to be. Its really sweet when you actually get everything from something that you wanted, and nothing more. Now I just have to find a female that can do this and I'll be all set. I bet she will cost more than $68-, wont she?
I'm confidant if you choose lower cost mics, you will get a lot of reduced recording quality.
I'm also confidant that if you spend more money than this, you will NOT get better recordings.
I believe this mic model is the perfect bargain fit between quality and cost for a corded mic. And I am one picky M-fkr.
I cant tell you how well the headset was quality wise for sitting over my ears as I already hate all head mounted headsets. I just don't like any of them on my head. So I cant tell you if this one was better or worse than others as they are all equally sucky in my opinion. But I will have to admit it didn't fall off and didn't feel like it was going to although I didn't do any dancing or jumping as a performer might on stage. Headset quality wise? Nothing jumped out at me as showing any faults. So I guess its ok.
Theres my review. Fantastic recording quality for a bargain price. Great cords and length. No quality flaws noticeable to me.
Hope this helps you.
Chris"