MXL AC404 USB Conference Microphone

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $129.95
Sale Price: $71.96
Today's Bonus: 45% Off

• Outstanding sound quality even in noisy environments
• Turn any location into a conference room
• Built-in headphone/speaker monitoring jack
• Delivers outstanding sound quality even in noisy environments 
• Includes 6 foot USB cable, headphone/speaker jack and leatherette zipper case

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Purchased this because my teammates work in various countries and we communicate in small conference rooms using Cisco VOIP speaker phones. Anyone remote would often complain the mic on the speaker phone was not loud enough and they couldn't hear everything being said, especially with low-talkers and people that like to sit away from the table.

Now we conference call using Google Talk or Skype...I toss the mic on the conference room table and everyone can hear extremely well. The Mic also has a speaker port so when you plugin into the USB port, the pc will see both a new MIC and a new Speaker....

Planning on ordering another mic to keep at home for conference calls with friends and family.

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I use this mic to capture the voices from meetings in a conference room. I run Camtasia to capture the video portion of a slide or other computer/projected presentation and the audio portion from the mic and then encode it and store the movie on our corporate file server for future viewing. The conference table is 30' long. Since the mic has 180 degree coverage, I place the mic close to one end of the table pointing towards the other end. It is very sensitive and has good frequency response. I adjust the record level using the computer audio mixer controls or the audio level control in Camtasia. Due to the wide frequency response range of this mic, it will also pick up AC noise, but I use the filters build into Camtasia to get rid of that frequency range. You could also use any other goood audio editing program such as Audacity (no cost)to do this. Highly recommended.

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I bought this for my office in order to conduct video-conferencing using skype between our two offices. However, we have a 20 foot conference table with a credenza at one end where the computer and TV are located. Being that this is a USB powered device, we had to use a USB hub in order to keep it powered over the length we needed to run it. YOU CAN NOT USE THIS MIC WITH A USB HUB! It does mention it in the user's manual, but it would be nice to know prior to purchasing.

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I'm a court reporter and use this mic to record every job I take down. Although I have had pretty good success with previous mics, none of them could pick up the guy at the end of the conference table nearly as well. I have not issues with it recording random noises in the room either. Be warned, it's quite a big bigger than it looks.

So far I've been very happy with this mic. It's been difficult to find a PC microphone that is somewhere between dirt cheap and way too expensive, but this unit is reasonably priced considering it's performance.

My previous mic was a $9 desktop model that had very poor performance. I had to over amp the volume so much, it could not have sounded good on the other end of ventrilo. I considered a logitech product, but after reading reviews I decided it was probably just a more expensive version of the $9 mic I already had. Unfortunately most PC mics seemed to range from $2 to $20 and the quality is as low as the price.

This mic has a wider frequency range than all of the cheap PC mics, comparable to the range of a $300+ mic, but without the expense.

Pros:

This mic is weighted well, it won't slide around under the weight of the cable.

Looks nice, metal black mesh with a red led light hidden inside to let you know its on (doesn't indicate status at all)

Picks up sound easily, my recording level is at 20% and people have no trouble hearing me or the fish tank 6 feet behind me.

Includes a cleaning cloth and leather-style carrying case, although somewhat unnecessary it's nice to be offered some extras when you buy something.

Wide frequency range comparable to $300+ mics.

Plug and play, no software included or required.

Powered via the USB port, no external power source required.

Other Comments:

Specs state, "Outstanding sound quality even in noisy environments", and this is true, however this does not mean that this will cancel out background noise. Whatever is happening in the room is going to be picked up by the mic. I have a PC full of fans, a fish tank, a table fan, and PC speakers, all of which are broadcast to people when I'm talking. This isn't what I would consider a con though, as I have yet to see a mic capable of picking up voice well while eliminating background sounds without it being right up in your face.

No where on the internet does there exist a picture of this mic with the red light illuminated. It's under the wire mesh and foam, roughly in the middle, though it is slightly to the right of center. If it's there for aesthetics, it's flawed in that it's not horizontally centered. It's not there to indicate that you're broadcasting or recording. All it really does is let you know that the mic has power via the USB cable. If you're into black hardware with red lights, then you'll be happy.