Overall and Final Verdict
So if you are one of the MANY people who aren’t satisfied with the headset options that are available on the market Antlion Audio has put together an interesting solution with the ModMic. You are able to pick out the headphones that work best for you, and believe me there are a lot of different options out there, and add the ModMic to make your own custom headset. I tested the ModMic with the V-Moda’s that I use at LANs but I have every intention of picking up a larger pair of headphones for when I need that top level audio experience at the house and now I can add a microphone to them and game on them as well. It attaches with double sided sticky tape so it will work with anything and you even get a few extra mounting points so you can swap between a few different headsets if you want.
The ModMic performed extremely well in my testing. In fact, I knew almost right away that it performed perfectly so most of my testing was just comparing the two different microphone options that you can pick from with the ModMic. I established that for a gamer looking for a microphone the Uni-Directional ModMic is going to keep your background noise down and perform well (as expected). The Omni-Directional ModMic on the other hand is going to have a much wider range should you need that, this is especially good if you plan on singing on microphone from time to time. The other benefit to the ModMic is that it is removable, so you don’t have to keep it on when you are just listening to your music.
While the ModMic performed really well for me, it wasn’t perfect. I knocked the microphone off of its magnetic base a few more times that I would have preferred. It’s nice that it is easy to remove but I would almost prefer it to be a more permanent mount just to not have to worry about it. I also think the boom could be a little more flexible, this was one of the reasons I ended up knocking the mic off in fact. I would love to see it have the same extremely flexible metal construction that the V-Moda boom microphone has. This would make it easier to adjust and also give more room to adjust up and down, something that is needed if you don’t get the ModMic mounted perfectly.
Originally when I started to write this final section I was thinking that the ModMic might be pricing itself out of the range of even the most expensive gaming headsets that I’m comparing it too. But when looking around I found that you can pick up even a cheap pair of high quality headphones like the Superlux HD 681’s for less than $30. Even with the ModMic costing about $50 if you opt for the optional microphone mute, that would be a lot less than most decent gaming headsets and I’m willing to bet that you are going to get a better experience as well. Then later on you can upgrade yourself to something nicer and just move your ModMic over. I’ve personally been looking at a pair of Beyerdynamic DT-990’s (amazon link) for a while now for example. So next time you are looking at gaming headsets, take a few minutes and look around at the normal audiophile headphones as well, you might be able to put together something as good or better without all the gaming fluff.
Live Pricing: HERE
