- The Shure SM7B is an
XLR dynamic microphone originally released in
1973, that sells for $400. The Shure SM58 is an
XLR dynamic microphone originally released in
1966, that sells for $100. Now, what happens when you
cross an SM7B with an SM58? You get filled with emvy. (smooth music) This is the Shure MV7, an XLR
and USB dynamic microphone released in 2020 that sells for $250, and it is a very interesting microphone. This is a pretty long and in-depth review, so if you wanna use the chapter markers to skip ahead to different parts that are more relevant to
you, that's totally fine, but if you wanna stick around for all of the dynamic puns I've condensed into
this microphone review, feel free to do that as well. We're gonna talk about a few things here, starting with the design and the build quality of the microphone, the features, both hardware and software, because software features are
a thing with this microphone. We're gonna talk about sound quality, I'll do some sound comparisons, and then we'll wrap up
by trying to figure out who this microphone is for. Now, right now you are
listening to the MV7 being run through the RODECaster Pro on the generic dynamic mic setting with no additional processing, so this is as dry of a MV7
signal as I can get right now. And if we start off by talking about the design of this microphone, it's impossible not to notice that it looks very similar to the SM7B. It's not exactly the same, so if you're thinking
this is just a USB version of the SM7B, it isn't, but it's impossible not to notice the similarities in design. And while the MV7 might
be a little smaller and more rounded than the SM7B, the build quality is about the same. They're both made out of metal, they both have an attached metal yoke that lets you adjust the
position of the microphone and connect it to microphone
stands or boom arms. On the back of the MV7 is an XLR jack, a USB jack, and a headphone output. But I need to point out that the USB jack is a micro USB jack, which completely surprised
me because I just assumed that this microphone released in 2020 was a USB-C microphone, because that's what made sense. But of course, because
it was released in 2020, that means it can't be perfect,
and it has a micro USB, which to me is completely crazy, and I have a feeling the only
reason they included that was to reduce costs, I'm guessing, including USB-C and a USB-C cable probably would have been
a little more expensive, but it absolutely would
have been more future-proof. I don't like that I now have to have another micro USB cable to keep track of. However, I will point out that the cable that comes with the microphone, which it does include a
micro USB to USB-A cable, and a micro USB to USB-C cable, both of which are really long, so if you're using this
microphone as a USB mic, it's very easy to position it wherever you need around your computer, 'cause you have plenty of
cable length to work with. And another difference you
might notice in terms of design is that the SM7B is very
classic and understated in terms of branding, whereas the MV7 has a giant Shure logo right on both sides of it. And this ties into exactly
what the intention is for this microphone, and why it's so interesting, also, because there are certain
companies like RODE, where over the past few years, as podcasting and streaming
have become more prevalent and really, really popular, they've doubled down on those markets. RODE has come out with
multiple USB microphones, video mics that can
act as USB microphones, the RODECaster Pro, the
PodMic, all of this stuff, all of these products designed for that specific market segment
of people who do podcasts, and live streams, and that whole genre. Shure, on the other hand, found themselves in a really good spot because they've had these microphones that have been in production for decades, and have been standards in the
radio industry for decades, and now, you know, things like the SM7B are pretty ubiquitous among
live streams, and podcasts, and YouTube videos, and Shure
didn't have to do anything to jump into that new market, but the MV7, as far as I
know, is their first release that's dedicated to the
podcast/livestreaming space, specifically, which explains
the very loud branding, because they expect
this to be a microphone that's gonna be on camera. Now, that has nothing to do with the quality of the
microphone, of course, but I've seen multiple
comments from people saying that they don't like
the way the logo looks, so I thought it was worth bringing up. Now because this is a
USB and XLR microphone, you do have some other notable features. You might be able to see these lights on the front of the microphone, there is a touch bar, I
guess you could call it, that lets you adjust the volume
of the microphone itself, and the headphones, when you're using it as a USB microphone. There's a switch to switch
between headphone controls, microphone controls,
or both, like a mixer, and there's also a mute
switch on the side. These controls only work when the microphone is being used via USB. If you only have it
plugged in through XLR, these don't work at all. But they're pretty neat because they're very touch sensitive, so you really don't need to put
any kind of pressure on them to control the microphone, which means like, if you need to mute it while you're recording, you can just touch the
mute button very lightly, and it will mute. Other USB microphones, like the Blue Yeti, which I really like, and I
think that's a great USB mic, have a physical mute button, which is very handy and
it works pretty well, but sometimes the little
click from the button definitely becomes
audible in your recording, or on your stream, or however
you're using the microphone. This one lets you be very gentle, so that way you can adjust these settings without it becoming
noticeable to your recording. And I talked about the
yoke of the microphone that lets you mount it
to a stand a second ago, but one thing that's very interesting is it looks shockingly similar
to the one from the SM7B, but there's a pretty big difference, which is that the SM7B has
this really cool feature where the bottom of the
yolk twists independently. So, you don't have to
twist the microphone around to connect it to anything, you just have to twist
this little end part to attach it to whatever
you're connecting it to, and that's great, because
then you don't have to spin your very expensive microphone around, and it also lets you have
the microphone connected to whatever cable you're using while you're attaching it to
whichever stand you're using. But the MV7 on the other hand, looks like it has this exact
same feature, but it does not. If you want to attach this microphone, you have to twist the microphone itself, or twist the stand itself, not a big deal, but just kind of annoying. The other issue I have
with the mounting option is that they had the opportunity to do something very
convenient, and they didn't, which is on the bottom of the yoke, there's a mount for a
standard microphone stand like these tabletop stands
I'm using right now, but if you wanna use the microphone with like a boom arm, or something that has a, I
think it's a 3/8-inch connector, you need to use one of
these little adapters, which is included with the microphone, but these are a pain to use, they're a pain to take in, put out. The RODE PodMic has a similar connector, but the outer part is designed for that standard microphone stand, but inside there's another diameter that's for that 3/8-inch connector. So if you're using this
on a tabletop stand, you don't need an adapter, and then if you wanna put it
on something like a boom arm that has that 3/8-inch connector, you also don't need an adapter. And that is incredibly convenient. The reason I'm frustrated
that the MV7 doesn't have that is because it almost does, it looks exactly like the PodMic, except the part of the microphone where they could have
machined in some threads for that 3/8-inch
connector, they just didn't. It's there, the diameter is there, but there are no threads,
and so now you can't use it. I feel like that would have been a really simple feature to add that would have built
in a lot of flexibility to this microphone. And then the other big
thing in terms of design is the capsule itself. So if you look at the
front of this microphone, trying not to ruin it
while I'm speaking into it, it looks similar to the SM7B, the SM7B has its standard windscreen, which kind of clips in, and then you have to unclip to take off. And then inside, you
have this metal housing and then the capsule in
there, so it's very protected, it really works well as a windscreen cause you have this metal
grid, plus the foam windscreen, The MV7 is entirely different. So this is where if you think this was just a USB version of
this microphone, it's not. If I take off the windscreen, you'll see that this microphone
looks entirely different. The capsule is really like a hybrid of the SM57 and the SM58. It's super-robust and really well-built, but it's definitely a
little bit different. It doesn't reject plosives as well as you can kinda hear, pa pa pa, but it's just one of those
things that shows you this microphone is
definitely its own thing, and it's not just an exact
copy of an existing microphone. And that does bring me to the windscreen on this $250 microphone, it is a very cheap, cheesy windscreen that I don't actually even
think works that well. It's not nearly as nice as the one that comes with the SM7B. In fact, if I can find it, you might've seen my video
about the Neewer NW-800, which is like the cheapest
condenser microphone I could find on Amazon. This twenty-five dollar microphone came with an ultra-flimsy
windscreen to go over it. It's basically the exact
same windscreen as the MV7, this one has kind of been like
in a cupboard for a while, so it's a little lopsided, but if I put the windscreen from my super cheap $25
microphone on the MV7, you can see it's almost the same as the one that actually came with it. I put the Shure one back on. It's not a big deal, but I wish it were a
little more high quality, especially because if you're
moving this microphone around, the windscreen comes off pretty easily. On the SM7B, the windscreen
has this plastic clip on it, so when you attach it, it kinda clips into the microphone, and now the windscreen's
not gonna go anywhere unless you want to detach it. But otherwise this is a
really well-built microphone that I think will last a really long time. I like the design of it, when you do have it plugged in via USB and the little lights are on, I think that looks kinda neat. It's definitely a more futuristic offering than we've seen before from Shure. And you can be sure about that. Get ready to hear that pun
like 10 times in this video. So now that we've covered hardware, let's talk about software. I'm gonna get the SM7B out of
here for just a few minutes. Don't worry though, it'll be
back for some comparisons. Now the software, of
course, as a USB microphone, is where this starts to offer some new stuff that we haven't
seen before from Shure. The first thing that you might notice, it's coming out of the
microphone right now, I have an XLR cable and a USB cable, and I am recording simultaneously. I don't think this is something
I would use very often, actually, outside of recording this video, where I'm gonna wanna compare
XLR versus USB audio quality, but it does give you the
flexibility of, I guess, adding a little bit of backup. Typically, if I wanna back
up an audio recording, I have the XLR cable
going into the RODECaster, the RODECaster's recording, then I have that connected to my computer, where I can also be recording there, so if I'm doing something really important that I wanna have a double recording of, that's normally how I do it. It is very cool that's
a feature that exists, and if you are using
the microphone via USB, then you can also use the headphone output to monitor your audio and
your sound from your computer. I'm not doing that right now because I have my headphones
running into the RODECaster because I'm gonna bring in
a couple other microphones in a few minutes to do some comparisons. Now there is an app called ShurePlus MOTIV that you'll need to download to get the most out of this microphone. There's a desktop version
and a mobile version, but, even though this is a USB microphone, and even though it comes with
a micro USB to USB-C cable, it does not currently
work with the USB-C iPads. But it does work with
USB-C Android phones. So I think that's something that they're going to need
to address in the future, and one of the benefits of having this app and having the software
side of this microphone is that it can be adapted and adjusted and improved over time. They haven't done any updates yet, but I'm sure that they will in the future. Maybe even by the time
you're watching this video. RODE has done the same thing with the RODECaster Pro, it's had numerous firmware
updates since its release that have added in a
ton of new flexibility and new features to the
exact same existing hardware. I feel like Shure's probably
gonna do the same thing. They're gonna go down the
same RODE, you might say. Now, right now you're
listening to the signal of the MV7 through the
RODECaster Pro via the XLR cable, but what I'm gonna do right
now is in the MOTIV app, I'm gonna switch to
the automatic settings, and now we're gonna switch to USB. Now, this is the USB
recording from the MV7, I didn't have to do anything
in terms of switching this, it's recording simultaneously,
which is pretty cool. And the automatic options give you a few different
things to work with. You can save your own presets, it doesn't really come with any right now, you can mute the microphone, but you can also do the same thing here, so if I tap the mute button,
untap the mute button, then it is un-muted. Since I'm set to automatic, the scroll wheel to adjust
the volume doesn't work, it doesn't really do
anything on the microphone, but you can also mute the mic from right within the app here. And then the monitor mix
is pretty interesting, because this lets you mix what you're hearing in your
headphones from the microphone via like how much of the
playback you're gonna hear, or how much of the mic
you're going to hear. So if you have sound
effects, if you have music, if you have something else that you're recording your voice over, you can adjust that mix, do you wanna hear more of your microphone? Do you wanna hear more of the mix itself? And that's some cool flexibility. And then the automatic equalization is one of the big benefits
of this microphone. If you're brand new to this, it gives you a few really simple options. One of them is the near option, which is really about a few
inches from the microphone, maybe like a fist's distance away, and then the other one is far, and if I'm right up on the microphone, you can hear how that has
changed my voice a little bit. But if I lean back and kinda
get away from the microphone, you should still be able
to hear me pretty well, which means I don't have to be right on top of the microphone,
depending on your voice, your recording situation,
that can be helpful. If you're working with someone who's not used into
speaking into a microphone, you've got a guest on your podcast, people who aren't used
to talking to microphones usually don't get close enough to them, so it's nice to have this option. I'm gonna switch it back to near, because I usually kinda lean
closer to the microphone. And then you also have tone options. So, natural is kinda
the most neutral option, dark is gonna bring in some of that base, and then bright is going to
get rid of some of that base, and go more towards the high end. And in fact, this might
be a good spot to do a few comparisons, so I'm gonna switch this back to natural. Let's bring in the SM7B. So now I've got the SM7B running
through the RODECaster Pro, and I've got the MV7 here. So this is the MV7 on near and natural, and this is just the
dry signal of the SM7B. What I'm gonna do now though, is switch the MV7 to the dark mode, so now this should have
bumped up some of the base, the SM7B is pretty well known for having nice rich low end, and now this is what the SM7B sounds like alongside the MV7, so you can hear both of these microphones. Maybe we could even do some
of the pop filter tests, like Peter Pepper pitched a podcast, Peter Piper pitched a podcast. Peter Piper pitched a podcast. You can also hear some of
the directional rejection. If I turn the SM7B, I
kinda stuttered there, you can sorta hear how it changes, as I'm in front of the microphone, or going away from the microphone, and the same is true for the MV7, I can turn it away from me, and you can hear it's
rejecting that sound, and if I turn it towards me, you hear more sound, and it goes away and you hear less sound. And just for the sake of comparison, let's bringing a PodMic, the reason being that it's a
much more affordable microphone at a hundred dollars, but also because the PodMic
tends to have a sound that leans more towards the higher end. So now on the MV7, if I switch it into bright, and then I also talk into the PodMic, now you can hear both the microphones. This is the PodMic, and this is the MV7. Sounds like there's
still a bit more low end on the MV7, but they're not too far apart, I think they work really,
really well together. Again though $100, $250,
that's a pretty big difference. And if you didn't watch my video, I do normally use the PodMic
with this big WS2 windscreen, and that really helps reduce
some of those plosives, but also reduces some of that high end, so now I think with this windscreen and the MV7 set to the bright setting, these two microphones pair
together pretty darn well. Now I should mention while you
can't use the slider on here for controlling the volume
when you're in automatic mode, if you hold your finger on the microphone/headphone
button for a few seconds, you can adjust that playback monitor mix. The orange represents the headphones, and the green represents the microphone, so you can adjust that mix. I will say, though, this little scroll wheel is
not super touch-sensitive, like you would expect, it's more like a dial that
doesn't actually turn, so it's not about swiping
exactly where you want it to be, it's more about like continuously scrolling your finger over it until you get the level you want. I know that sounds small, but if you use this, you'll
kinda see what I mean, it was a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang
of it, it works really well. Now the automatic settings are great, especially the near and far positions, because those kinda level
out things automatically, but if you don't wanna use those, and you wanna have more
full manual control over your microphone, then what you can do is you can go into the manual controls of the app, and you have a lot more flexibility here. You have the same options
to create and save and manage your presets. You can mute the microphone, but here you can also
adjust the mic's gain all the way up to 36 decibels, and all the way down to zero. I've been leaving it at about 33. And I should mention too, maybe because this is a USB microphone, it does not seem as gain hungry, it's definitely not as
gain hungry as the SM7B, but it doesn't even seem
quite as gain hungry as the PodMic, so, while a Cloudlifter via XLR will definitely boost
the signal in a nice way, I think it's easier to get
by using this microphone directly into something
like the RODECaster without a Cloudlifter, and still having plenty of
gain and plenty of signal. And you've got the same monitor mix that we talked about before, which every setting that
you adjust on the app also then shows itself on the microphone. You also have some EQ options that are very similar to the ones built into the back of the SM7B. There's a flat EQ, which
doesn't really do anything, then there's a high pass filter, which basically gets rid
of some of the low end. Then there's a presence boost, which boosts more of the high end, which is kind of like
where a lot of human voices tend to live, and then there's also a high
pass and presence boost, which kinda combines both
those settings together to create this sound, I don't know if you like it, or if you don't like it, but
this is what it sounds like, this is high pass and present, and then we go all the way
back to just the flat EQ, kinda how the mic sounds normally. There is a limiter, which is very helpful. It's not super noticeable, and I actually like
this limiter quite a bit because I turned it on, shouldn't have really been
able to hear anything, but if I turn the limiter off, and I go like, ah! You should kinda hear, ah! It's so loud. If I turn the limiter on, and I go like, ah! It should try to compress that, so that way you don't end up with, ah! Like as much peaking as before. So, if you're working with somebody who has a lot of volume
shift in their voice, or you're doing a podcast
where you're just so hilarious and people are laughing
really loudly a lot, you might wanna use that limiter. There's also a compressor
built into the app, so this, right now, the compressor is off. This is light compression, this is medium compression, and this is heavy compression. So this is much more of like that traditional broadcast
tone, I guess you could call it. None of these are better or worse, it's all up to how you're
using the microphone, and of course just what you prefer, and what works best with
your voice specifically, and just what you like. So this is heavy compression
with a high pass filter and a presence boost, so this is a very
heavily-processed signal, and then this is just the natural signal out of the microphone. One of the reasons I like
the PodMic so much personally is because, at least for my voice, it's the most natural sounding. When I record with the PodMic, this is what I sound like in real life. Other microphones, like the MV7, I might really like the
way that they sound, but they almost make me sound better than I sound in real life. It's up to you, of
course, what you prefer, I like the accurate sound, at least for my voice, of the PodMic, and again, very important to emphasize, each voice is going to sound different with different microphones. So just because something
sounds good with one person doesn't mean it's going to be the perfect microphone for you, depending on what your voice is like. And that's everything
you can do in the app. Now, of course, because
this is a USB microphone, you can record directly
into another application, like Audition or Garage Band or Logic, and you can add equalization there, you can run it through the RODECaster, add equalization there. So you have a lot of
flexibility with your signal, but the app kind of puts
it all in one place, especially if you don't have
any of that other software, or you don't wanna dig into
all of those crazy tools, I think the app is really easy to use. And like I said before, because there can always
be updates for the app, there can always be appdates, you never know what kinda functionality could be added into the future, and the app is one of those things that's kind of a pro
and a con for this mic, because on the one hand, it builds in all these new features, it lets you do all kinds
of really cool stuff, you have all these
controls on the microphone. but on the other hand, I'm always a little nervous when something is tied
so closely to an app, because while the physical
microphone is built well enough to last forever, for
years and years and years, I don't know how long they're gonna be developing this app. I don't know, in five or 10 years, if I'm gonna wanna take my micro USB cable and plug it into a
computer and use this app, or if I'll even be able to do that. But you could have bought an SM7B in 1973, which rhymes, and that
microphone will still work today just the same way it
did when you bought it. The XLR functionality of
the MV7 will do the same, I think that we'll just
keep working forever, but it seems like down the
line, I don't know how long, five years, 10 years, 15 years, the USB functionality
might not be as useful, because there just might
not be as many things to use it with, so that means you might
have this USB microphone that has all these
buttons and things on it that you literally just can't use. That's all speculation, of course, but it's something that
makes me a little nervous when a device is tied so
closely to a software app. So now let's talk about audio quality, and I look like I'm at a press
conference from the 1980s. I've got a few things for comparison. Of course, the MV7 is
right here in the middle, the SM7B is on my right, your left, and the RODE PodMic is
on my left, your right, with the big windscreen because I really
recommend using the PodMic with the windscreen, even
though it definitely takes away from the really nice
aesthetics of the PodMic, I love the way that this microphone looks, and then you put this on it and it looks a little bit goofy, but it sounds really nice. And again, in terms of price, we're talking about $100, $250, and $400. All mics are being run
through the RODECaster Pro on the generic dynamic setting with no additional processing, including the PodMic, which has its own specific
setting in the RODECaster, I'm not using that right now, they're all being treated very equally. So let's start with the MV7 of course, because that's why you're
here watching this video. I will say I've been using this
microphone as much as I can since I received it, I've been
using it in all my classes, I've been using it on
livestreams, podcasts, I really do love the
sound quality of this mic, it's a great sounding microphone. Every time I hear a
recording played from it, it definitely sounds better than the way my voice sounded in my head, which I think is a positive thing. So the sound quality of this
mic, I find just terrific. And it's really clean. If I stop talking for a second, you can hear just how
quiet the noise floor is. It's a pretty good-sounding microphone, but the SM7B of course is
pretty legendary as well. This is the just natural
sound from the SM7B, you can kinda hear some differences there. There's no additional
processing of course, and for good measure, this is the RODE PodMic
again, with no processing, and if you wanna hear it
without the windscreen, this is what it sounds like
without the windscreen, but the reason I like that is because this does cut down
the high end on the PodMic, and it does definitely
reduce those plosives. I'm talking across the PodMic right now, but if I talk directly to the PodMic, you're gonna hear plosives. And of course the same
is true for the MV7, I notice the plosives are
pretty noticeable here. At the beginning of this video, when I kept saying the year 2020, the "twa," like I had to
redo that like five times, because I kept saying released in 2020, and you could hear the plosive. The SM7B I think is pretty good
at reducing those plosives, like 20, 20, 20, 20. It's a pretty big difference there, and the reason for that
is not just because it has a foam windscreen, but it has that metal grill under it, which also acts sort of as a windscreen. The MV7 only has this pretty
cheesy foam windscreen, and the PodMic is supposed to
have a built-in windscreen, which works okay, but once you put this
big puffy windscreen on, nothing is getting through, this microphone sounds pretty darn good. And now for no other
reason than just curiosity, let's take the PodMic out of here, and let's have a Shure showdown, which is sure to be entertaining. It's time to hit the road, RODE, just for right now, I
promise I'll keep using it. Now I've got two more
Shure microphones here, I've got the SM58, which is a $100 dynamic microphone, and I've also got the SM
sev...no, what is this? The SM57 in a giant windscreen. Last time I made a video about this, everybody recommended in the comments that I get the AWS81 windscreen, which I actually don't wanna take off, cause it's really hard to put on, but this windscreen completely changes the Shure SM57 for vocals. It is like a $30 or $35 windscreen, so it makes this a $100 microphone a $130 microphone. Now, of course, even though these are $100 microphones, they don't have a built in
yokes or connectors or anything. They do come with a mic clip, and now this is the Shure SM58, which is just sort of
the classic microphone. It's hard to go wrong with the 58, I think it sounds terrific, this is the SM58, Peter
Piper pitched a podcast. This is the MV7, Peter
Piper pitched a podcast. And this is the SM7B, Peter
Piper pitched a podcast. The 58 is always a good option, especially if you're gonna
be using your microphone not just in-studio, but potentially out in public or on stage, or you wanna do singing and talking and a whole bunch of different stuff. Not that you couldn't
use these microphones, are amazing, also, for
vocals and singing and stuff, but the 58 is just sort of
the all-around work horse, like Renaissance man or
woman of microphones. But let's then look at the SM57, which I have found so
interesting with this windscreen. I think that with this
windscreen, the SM57, which is normally very
susceptible to pops and plosives, you can just like pa-pa-pa-pa-pa, and nothing is gonna get
through all day long. It also just rounds out the sound, and makes it sound really full. So again, this is a $100 microphone with a $30 windscreen. This is the MV7. This is the SM7B, the Shure SM7B, and the Shure SM57. I made a whole video about
these two microphones working together really well if you add a windscreen over here, Oh, and I should have, sorry, while I was using the SM58, I should have used its windscreen, cause it usually does come
with a little windscreen. So, Peter Piper pitched a podcast, and Peter Piper pitched a podcast. Definitely makes a
difference, great for voice. These windscreens, too, if your SM58, doesn't come with one, they're really cheap, like
$10 or something to buy. So, you have all kinds of
different options here, but what I wanted to highlight was just how these $100 microphones sound when compared with a $250 microphone, or a $400 microphone. So let's just wrap up with
all of these microphones here that we've talked about today, just for some reason, because there are so many
microphones here right now. Where does the MV7 fit, and who is it for? So it sounds great, it
has a lotta cool features, but personally, I think
that the $250 price tag is its biggest downfall. For $200, with all of that
USB and app functionality, I think this would be a very
easy microphone to recommend, $250, in the world of
microphones, isn't that expensive, there are mics that cost thousands and thousands of dollars, but the target audience for
this is clearly somebody who's doing podcasting and livestreaming, and most of the people
I know in that realm are doing it on the side. They're doing it as a hobby,
they're doing it for fun, they're doing it as a part-time thing, and $250 for a single microphone
is kind of pushing it. I feel like a lot of
people I know personally might wanna jump the extra $150 and go for the SM7B, or more likely, spend less money and get something like a PodMic, or, if you wanna stick with Shure, going with like the SM58, or the 57. For the price of one of these microphones, you can get two PodMics with
the big puffy windscreens, and have a perfect
interview podcast setup. And these are only XLR microphones, but they're built to last a lifetime. And I think all of these
RODE and Shure microphones are built to last as
long as you need them to, but the USB functionality of this one, while being a huge benefit, is also the thing that
might limit its lifespan, or at least some of its
functionality and usability into the future. But I think the person
that this microphone is most ideal for is somebody who needs a single microphone as
their all-around workhorse, that sounds great, but they also use USB functionality,
and XLR functionality, almost at a 50/50 split, because if you just need a USB mic, there are so many great options in the a hundred dollar price range. Get a Blue Yeti, get a RODE NT-USB, something like that, get the Samson Q2U, which is like kind of an SM58, that has XLR and USB functionality. There's a ton of options
in the hundred dollar or under price range. If you just want an XLR mic, get a PodMic, get a 58, get a 57, there are so many options,
again, that are cheaper. So I think that if you're
gonna spend the $250 on this microphone, it should be because you're
going to use both features. And that is a realistic scenario, maybe you use it as a USB microphone for your job or something, while you're doing like teleconferencing, and then on your off time, you do a podcast or a stream, and you wanna plug in the XLR connector with some other microphones
and use it that way. That actually makes sense. What I absolutely wouldn't recommend, unless you just love the sound so much, is buying multiple of these for a setup. So like I have my two
PodMics as my podcast setup, and I did that specifically so that when I'm talking
with a guest on my podcast, we can be using the same microphone, and everything sounds the same. I wouldn't do that with this, because then you're gonna end up with two or three or
four USB/XLR microphones, and you're never going to
use four USB microphones at the same time. With most computers,
that's not even something that's possible to do,
much less practical. So while this is a great mic
in terms of audio quality, the price and the functionality
make me a little confused about who it's for, but I still wouldn't be surprised if you start seeing these popping up in a lot of podcasts and
a lot of live streams, because it is a great microphone. And just for the sake of full disclosure, I'm very flattered when I
get messages and comments from people telling me they decided to buy a PodMic or a RODECaster or something because I talked about it on my channel, I want you to know what I
have and what I actually use. This SM7B is not mine,
I borrowed this one. This SM58 is not mine. The SM57 is mine, I bought it in 2005 to record guitar amplifiers. The two PodMics are mine, of course, cause I bought these and I
talk about them all the time. The MV7 I did buy with my own money, and I'm not returning it,
I'm keeping the microphone. And I do have a Blue Yeti that
I bought several years ago when I first started
doing voiceovers and stuff on my channel, this is a a hundred dollar microphone, it's a great microphone. So those are the microphones that I own and have collected over the
years for different purposes. The PodMic still is my main microphone, it's the one that works
best with my voice, so if you did purchase a PodMic
based on my recommendation, don't feel betrayed, these are still my main microphone,
my favorite microphones. I am keeping the MV7. There is something about it that is very tough to
put into a video review. There's an intangible
thing about this microphone that is very fun to use, something about it, recording with it, setting it up using it, it's just a really enjoyable mic to use. It's hard to communicate
that through video. I might get some flack for this, but the SM7B while a
great-sounding microphone, I've never had fun using it,
or really enjoyed using it, it's just been a good, reliable tool. The MV7, there's something
that just makes it fun, I don't know what that is. It's sort of this, I
don't know, vibe, I guess, as the kids say, that just makes this a really enjoyable mic to use. And if this long video wasn't quite enough to show you what you need, I do have an entire playlist of microphone and podcast gear-related videos that hopefully will help you figure out exactly what's gonna
suit your needs the best. And of course, if you
really like the Shure MV7, you can go ahead and grab one and make all of your friends emvious. (upbeat music)
