Super Cheap Microphone - Neewer NW-800 Unboxing, Review, and Quick Test 

Does the mic work with 3 volts i dont want to buy a phantom power suply

It should be noted not all motherboard supply a 5v output via 3.5 so the results may very if your getting 5v or not

The Locator phantom power is like 15$ not exactly expensive does pump the investment cost of the mic up tho

its a 30 doller mic, what do you expect

@@aidanw6725 since this is a budget Condenser mic you should have ordered a pahantom Power Supply to make this BUDGET mic sound quality like

muhahaha... freak

@@hansmuller1980 ok dude

Agreed, the MXL is much more to my liking as well.

@@YHRS I like the Neewer much more. But I think both will do for the buck. EQ-ing or processing to fine tune to taste and you're done. I like to use my Neewer with a compressor and other processors and you will get a real nice sound. Sometimes I think it sounds better than my Sennheiser, which is really all over the place on the low end. Sometimes I use both of them and mix them. Music making is like a playground! :-)

@@dussie920 How do you usually EQ this mic? Do you put extra lows?

@@horribleIRUKANDJI Yes, I do. But I heard more of these exact same microphones, but they all seem to sound a little different. My friend has one, which sounds harsher in the high frequencies, where mine seems to be more lacking low end. We tried these using the same setup, just changing out the mics. I use mine with a after market pop filter, which to me is better than the one from Neewer. But... for the buck, it really is a fair mic in my opinion. Better than I would have expected. Way better.

@@dussie920 I see. Thanks for the insight!

Liowen I definitely can't argue with it's bang for buck value. Glad to hear it's working for you!

Liowen can you mute this mic

Hey, can I record the video with a phone while using NW 800?

Good choice!

So, you've got the mic connected to a phantom power box using an XLR/XLR cable, then an XLR/3.5mm cable going from the phantom power box to the laptop? I think that sounds correct. Although now that I look at the connections on the HP Stream, it has one of those combination headphone out / microphone in jacks. There is most likely a need to adapt from the 3.5mm TRS cable to the TRRS jack on the computer. I believe that something like this would do the trick, but you'll want to to a little research to make sure : www.amazon.com/Movo-TCB1-Microphone-Smartphone-Headphone/dp/B01FVAW57Y

Definitely give a try to the EQ on the desk. For spoken word, I think this mic will be OK with some EQ. I think that the problem with the sound of this mic is that it's not picking up very much information in the lows and highs. So when you try to boost the lows and highs, there isn't anything there but a little bit of noise. Same thing if you cut the mids and boost the whole signal...you're left without much information that the mic picked up except noise. This mic will get you started, but eventually you're probably going to want something that's more sensitive across a broader frequency spectrum.

These mics will be marginal for a podcast, but they'll get the job done. I'd make mics your first upgrade though. The Behringer 404HD would be a good interface to investigate while you're shopping. 4 mic preamps on 4 input channels seems well suited to a 4-mic podcast.

If I remember correctly, the MXL770 uses the same capsule as the MXL990, except the different shape of the body gives it a very different EQ curve. The 770 looks to have a pretty extreme presence peak, but that's just from looking at the specs. I haven't used one personally. I did like the C1 mainly because of its price. It's a little noisy, which may or may not be an issue for you. The Rode NT1 is in a whole different price bracket, and would be a superior mic compared to the others mentioned.

Your Home Recording Studio thanks a lot for the analysis, much appreciated!

No need for a mixer or external preamp if you have an audio interface with preamps built in. You could go with a small mixer with USB connectivity instead of an interface if you're just doing 1 or 2 channels. And a mixer can come in handy if you have some rather complex routing needs or are doing something like karaoke where you want to blend a stereo backing track with a vocal track and record it how it's mixed on the mixer. But I'm a pretty big fan of using an audio interface instead of a mixer in a home studio.

Somehow it's your fault that the Marshall is here. And bless you for that :)

Your Home Recording Studio Lol! You're welcome!

if you go into sound control panel you should be able to change the volume of your mic

After you record, use a plugin called noise gate

There is an adapter that you can use to plug a mic directly into a phone's headphone/mic jack, but I really don't know if a phone would deliver enough voltage to properly power this mic.

@@YHRS You'll need a pre amplifier for sure. Can be a cheap ass one, no problem.

@@dussie920 If he uses a preamp, his phone will blow up

@@danieldeiparine5716 sorry, I meant phantom power. This Neewer is a condensor mix and needs +48V to power it. I own one too and it doesn't work without.

@@dussie920 If you use phantom power, and then directly plugging it in your phone. It'll definitely blow up. I tried it

I know a guy who builds multipattern mics using K47 capsules using BM-800 bodies.

Technically, it can plug straight into your computer even without phantom power. I tried it and it didn't work very well. With a phantom power supply, it should work fine straight into the computer.

I haven't used the 770, but according to www.recordinghacks.com, it uses the same capsule and circuit as the 990. It's just in a different body that accentuates different frequencies. And judging by the frequency response chart on that page, holy moly the 770 has an insane lift in the high frequencies that peaks at almost +10 dB (!!!) at 10kHz. In a budget capsule, I'd expect that to sound pretty harsh without some serious EQ to tame it. But that's only going by the chart and not by my ears.

Both the 990 and 770 use a small diaphragm capsule, so they'll be really good at picking up transient response, but "on paper" they wouldn't have as good of a low-frequency response. That being said, I've never thought that my 990 has been lacking low end for vocal.

@@YHRS hmmmm......So can I safely say, that I stand a better chance going the way of the mxl 990......I'm not into harshness of the high ends in microphones.....the NW 700 can offer me lots of mids and highs for under $40......So the mxl 990 it is.

About the only solution is to get it as close to the desired source as you can, so that your source is loud compared to the background noises, and adjust your gain accordingly. And since it is a cardioid pattern mic, try to point the back towards any noise source that you want to avoid picking up. You can try a noise gate, but they're a little tricky to set where they're effective but not annoying. My main tactic is to record when the house and neighborhood is quiet, and distance myself from indoor noise as much as possible.

@@YHRS ok, thank you!

My experience using this mic without phantom power was pretty poor. It did work, but the mic output was very low. So I had to crank up the gain to get a reasonable signal level. But adding that much gain from the integrated sound card's mic input introduced a LOT of noise. About all I can suggest other than getting an audio interface or phantom power supply would be to keep the gain relatively low and turn up the level in post-production.

@@YHRS And if the microphone does not work after connecting it to an external sound card, the microphone is damaged? And does it make sense that you don't hear me at all when I connect it directly to a computer?

@@naorisio7956 Late answer and I hope you figured it out by now. Broken mic, cable, sound card, usb port.. could be anything. Try with other microphones if you can.

You can actually pug it straight into the mic input of your computer. It's not ideal, and I didn't have very good luck using it that way, but it'll definitely work in a pinch. I'd recommend taking a look at buying an audio interface at some point, but you can just plug it straight in with the provided XLR-3.5mm cable for now.

No, you can use the included XLR-3.5mm cable to plug directly into your mic jack on your computer (assuming your computer has such a jack). I'd still highly recommend using it with an audio interface that provides 48V phantom power, though.

I tried using it with the included cable and it was super quiet and sounded like shit. I now use it with a behringer um2 to record a guitar amp and it sounds great. Far better than the amp's cab simulated xlr out

@@YHRS so its possible to use straight out of box even at a sacrifice of quality????

NvidiaFanGamers hey Thanks! Hopefully you're getting lots of good use out of yours!

I use behringer c1 and i am so good

Came for the mic but stayed for the entrance.

Currently @ 8:41 and this mic is crap.

12:51 loved that. Hilarious

16:10 that's when you realize you just placed a couple of fists in front of your mouth and you should edit it out.

Great vid. Plus, it seems you did lose some weight. Thanks for sharing! 👌

Thanks! I've been thinking about doing a sort of "round up" of several of these super-cheap microphones, and the BM-700/NW-700 is on the shortlist of ones to try.

If you're recording music, then I'd totally agree that saving up for something better would be advisable.

@@YHRS that's exactly what I want to do and I need something that won't buzz on the high notes

@Your Home Recording Studio what do you think of the AKG Perception 200? It's the mic I plan on using for my professional music vocals. I'm using a Tapco Link Audio Interface for the phantom power

Let me think about this for a bit. As for the monitors, those jbl cheapies are actually pretty good. The HS5 might be better, but the LSR305 are a good bargain. As for the other stuff, let me shop and think for a bit and get back to you.

Your Home Recording Studio Thanks for your reply! Yeah I was thinking about yamaha hs5 too but many people say they lack a lot of low freq. And because a subwoover is like 400€ i dont think they gonna be it for me. They Hs7 looks like a more solid choice but they are obviously way more expensive then the Jbl ls305. Maybe i can find a second deal for the yamaha hs7 or otherwise i think i go for the JBL’s. Ive seen the behringer uphoria umc202HD and i think they have seperate monitor and headphone volume controlls. But i know they dont have there own drivers and you need asio4all, does that have any disadvantages?

Pretty much any of the 5" monitors are going to lack the low end of their bigger brothers. They still go down to somewhere around 50Hz, which will still cover your bass guitar and kick drum, but it might miss sub-bass stuff like synths or low-end rumble and HVAC noise. It looks like the UMC202HD does have its own drivers for Windows, but you could still use it with ASIO4ALL if you choose. I'm curious about that interface since it's price is so appealing. I'll have to pick one up someday and give it a try. Oh, and as for plugging an interface into your phone: that is definitely possible, usually with a USB camera kit adapter, but I don't have any direct experience doing it so I can't really offer much help beyond Google results.

the cheapest one i know is beringer um22

It's probably not enough to even power the mic, so no, it's not good with phones. You can plug it into a desktop computer, but sound will be pretty bad. You should buy a phantom power or USB sound card. Removes a lot of background noise and makes everything much more clear. Here is with a sound card, hear the difference: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aQzSEaq8zbc.html

From my experience with this mic, it really struggles if it's not fed a true 48V power supply. I can't tell if that HD capture box supplies any power, but I'd think that it's only supplying 3V or 5V at most. I did not like how this mic performed when supplied only 3V.

Are you on Mac or Windows? In Windows, you can right-click on the speaker icon in your system tray, select Open Sound Settings, and scroll down to "Choose Your Input Device". You should be able to select your laptop's mic input there. You can test and adjust the input level from there.

@@YHRS Unfortunately I'm Mac, but thank you for the help!

Since my laptop only has one 3.5mm jack port it is labelling the microphone as headphones and doesn't give me the option of any other microphone except the inbuilt laptop microphone.

Oh, I wonder if that headphone/mic jack uses one of those TRRS connectors? There may be an adapter that will allow the proper connection between a mic and that jack, but I don't know enough about it to suggest a specific one.

@@YHRSI'm not sure it's worth all the trouble. Are there any affordable (around $50 and below) USB microphones you would recommend?

The cable is still 3-conductor, but the mic jack on integrated sound cards aren't balanced. I ran this mic off of the 5V front panel mic jack on a couple of computers, and it was pretty noisy and low-gain. I can't really recommend connecting it this way. The XLR to XLR input with a full 48V of phantom power I used in this video produced much better results.

Depends on the interface that's correct but i was referring to your description of the cable being unbalanced. If a cable is correctly wired to the three separate points ie 1,2,3 on the xlr end and tip ring sleeve on the other it is still classed as balanced however if it has been modified where the tip and ring are spliced together and the 2 and 3 on the other end somewhere then it would be unbalanced. but keep up the good work :)

Two factors can contribute to hiss in the signal: self-noise from the microphone, and noise from the preamp if the gain is set too high. Then once you compress the signal to tame peaks and turn up the makeup gain or normalize the track, that noise is turned up with the signal. Agreed, that can be bad news for a vocal track that isn't part of a busy mix. Try this: turn down the preamp gain a bit, make sure that you're recording at 24-bit, and compensate for the low volume by turning up the track volume in your DAW. See if that helps the noise from the preamp.

As for budget mics that fit your needs, two brands come to mind that pride themselves on their low self-noise: Lewitt and Rode.

@@YHRS hmmmmmmm....when I hear rode and lewitt, I start to cold sweat...those are not budget microphones at all.....well, unless you know of microphones under those brands, that are in the budget category....because I'm not aware of any...can you list those you call budget...maybe it would help me to decide.....and thank you for your advice on the mic/preamp noise floor/self noise issue

I guess it comes down to what your budget is. Good mics don't come cheap, as all of us home recordists have learned. I would normally recommend the Behringer C1 for $50 as a great budget option, but the one thing that I don't like about it is its self-noise. So I'm not sure that'd be a good option for voice over. It might be worth a try, it's not horribly noisy but there's definitely some hiss in its signal. Honestly the MXL 990 isn't bad either, and is in the same price bracket at $60. From there, the AT2020 is a good starter option and at the same $100 price point are the tried and true SM57 and SM58, which are always reliable options. Lewitt has a mid-diaphragm mic at about $150, and unfortunately the low end of the Rode mics is around $250, same for the Lewitt LCT440 (which is a terrific mic for the price). Rode offers a starter pack with a good mic and a single input interface for $350, which might be good to save up for as a voiceover artist. Of course an NW-700 and a UMC22 would cost $60-$70 total and would at least get you going while you save up for a better mic.

@@YHRS the NW700?....you're kidding right...lol...I know you are not serious ....but, I'm taken in by the info you shared here with me...it's a lot for me now to decide on my course of mic decision and choice .....is the behringer umc22, your serious budget choice of interface for starters ?

mine wont even show up as an option

could u help me

You have to use phantom power

This comment is also late but you can buy a pretty cheap USB sound card and get pretty good sound, if phantom power is to expensive/overkill for you. Here is a USB sound card 3,5 mm aux vs sound card: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aQzSEaq8zbc.html

I plugged it into my motherboards onboard mic input and it had very low gain. Once i added enough gain to get a strong signal, there was quite a bit of noise. I'd suggest either an inexpensive audio interface or maybe a t least one of those little USB converters. But it'll work direct into your front panel mic input, just expect some noise or low output.

There are a ton of great options out there. If you'd prefer a dynamic mic, it's hard to beat the Shure SM57 or SM58 at $100. There are a few condensers at that price as well, like the AT2020, NEAT King Bee, MXL 990, Lewitt LCT 240. Even the Blue Yeti makes for a good voiceover mic. Best of luck in finding the right one for you!

dont take the risk

@@AP-en2tj Feast or famine, Rolls Royce or Roller Skates... From considering USB power - $9, justify a phantom power supply - $18, no... no.. justify audio interface entry level Behringer, why buy junk.. Ended up getting Focusrite SCARLETT 2i4 1st Gen - eBay - $42. Wadda ride all this stuff is...

Technically, yes it will work. In my experience though, it is not a very good way to connect the mic. In my situation, it provided very low output and needed a LOT of gain applied via the Windows sound control panel. Adding that much gain also added so much noise that it was basically unusable. I would highly recommend getting an inexpensive audio interface with 48V phantom power and an XLR-XLR cable to connect this mic.

@@YHRS Dammit, I was really hoping I wouldn't have to buy anything extra for it to work. I will try the microphone out without a power supply and see what happens. Also, separate question, what do you mean, 'so much noise it was basically unusable'? edit: i am going to purchase the SYBA external USB Stereo Sound Adapter and see how well that works.

For the time being, it'll work if you plug it straight into the mic input on your computer. When I plugged it in that way, the mic output was very very low/quiet. So I had to crank up the gain on my mic input, which introduced an immense amount of hiss. That is the noise that I was talking about. It made it pretty much unusable for recording. It was much better when I supplied it with a proper 48V when I connected it via XLR/XLR cable to an audio interface.

@@YHRS I did end up buying a Neewer 48V phantom power anyways. Thank you for responding and helping me out! ;)

Divs

Same

Is the problem that it won't show up as a device in the Windows sound control panel? Or is it not showing as an input in your DAW?

@@YHRS sorry I'm an absolute nub thanks for replying tho I just needed the USB thing that splits mic and headphones

Yeah, I realized after this video that it can operate off of the 5V mic jack power. I made a follow-up video about it, and it didn't go very well for me. But it did work. It was just incredibly noisy.

@@YHRS am lucky mine sounds awsome but i do have like the top end motherboard powering my pc that might be why mine sounds clear

It could be a couple of things: - did it get wet or damp? You could try drying it out in a bag of rice or silica gel - Is there a lot of gain added somewhere in your signal chain? A preamp that's turned up very high can cause a hissing sound - could be that the mic was damaged or defective

Gracias por contestar, descubrí que no tenía bien configurado, thanks for your answer

Yes, it should work. I'm assuming that the Behri mixer has phantom power available, so just use an XLR male to XLR female cable, enable phantom power on the mixer, and you should be good to go.

Your Home Recording Studio thank you I was testing my behringer x1202 with and it worked that day when I asked the question. But here’s another question- right now I record my podcast while going live on Facebook. I found a way to get sound from the mic to the live but I also wanted to play music as input into the mixer and output to the live. I need help figuring that out

Depending on how many channels you need to record at one time, take a look at the Behringer U-Phoria UMC22, or the Focusrite Scarlett Solo for starters.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DF-37Tqxvq4.html

@@YHRS thanks for the video but you start the video out using the "Newer" mic and I can't tell any difference between this mic and your other mic. It would have been cool to use your regular mic then plug this one in and show the sound difference. Maybe I am asking for to much.

I was actually surprised by the C1 when I tried it out. I didn't directly compare it to the MXL 990, but for $50 I think it was a good deal. My only complaint about the C1 was the relatively high self-noise. It wasn't a problem for a single vocal or guitar track, but once I put 8 or 10 tracks all recorded through the C1 in a project, then added some compression, the noise floor became a definite issue in my mix. I had to use some carefully configured gates on everything to keep everything silent. The MXL 990 would be my recommendation, except that the price went up on it. When I bought mine 10 years ago, I paid $60. Now they're selling for $100. At $60, I'd say the 990 is a steal. But at $100 it's now competing with other mics that are pretty darned good at that price (Audio Technica, Studio Projects, Shure, among others). The MXL 770 uses the same capsule as the 990, but I've never used one myself so I can't offer any thoughts on it. It's in a different body/housing, and the frequency response chart shows an insane lift in the high frequencies. I'd be afraid that it'd sound harsh and sibilant compared to the 990, but that's just a guess based on the specs.

I can definitely recomand the nt1 greate condesnor mic but if your more in the market the procaster is also a awsome dynamic just comes down to your use case and budget

I haven't tried that one. I looked it up and I'm intrigued. I'll keep it in mind and I might pick one up to see how it sounds. Thanks!

Musician's Friend / Guitar Center is still selling them. I think that they normall sell for $100 USD, but every once in a while I see them go on sale for as low as $60 USD.

I take it that you're feeding the mic and phantom power into your computer's integrated sound card mic input? Are you getting a lot of noise, or does the signal sound bad in a different way?

No way that’s the powers fault all it does is supply power it might be the wire or your sound card unless if the power is in a mixer then that’s when the power would matter

Somebody from Fifine contacted me months ago, but I never got a reply when I inquired about testing one of their microphones. There is a wireless mic that looked interesting in the product lineup.

Your Home Recording Studio ham radio

Good question! I tried it myself and it didn't work. But I did find this video that shows an adapter that you can use to plug a microphone into your phone: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fA7YV8zwr0Y.html Best of luck!

I'm not sure what their model numbers are. They're both the default mounts that come with their respective microphones. I'd bet that the cheap spring-loaded shockmounts on Amazon are pretty similar. I've actually got one on the way now, if I remember I'll report back on how it works out!

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I think it was in another comment here that I'd mentioned that while the cable is 3-conductor and could carry a balanced signal, I think that the intent of the cable is to allow people to plug the mic directly into the integrated mic jack on their computers. That'd definitely be an unbalanced jack. Poor wording in the video on my part, I guess :)

LOL that's exactly it!

The C1 really surprised me. I had low expectations going in, but I was really pleased with how it sounded for its price. $20 is a great deal for one of those!

Yeah, especially that it was 20bucks when dollar were quite weak. Now it would be 30$ in my currency so bargains are always possible. Many people say that B1 is great microphone, much better than C1. I don't have capabilities of compare both, but still i'm happy for such nice performance in such low price range

Yes, but you have to provide phantom power.

Marshall is headquartered in the US, but most of their mics are manufactured in China.