Best Budget Microphone! BM-800 Unboxing and Review

Watch the video!

Category: Condenser Microphone
Price: P800
Bought from: Lazada

Time for another gear review! This time we're looking at a so-called 'professional' studio microphone, or otherwise known as a condenser mic- with shock mount and flexible arm holder to boot! It's sold for only P800, but the question is, how does it hold up in being 'professional' despite its very low price point?

You can find a ton of these in Lazada and other online hubs like eBay and Amazon- mostly individually, but others do sell them as a set like this one. The seller I got it from labelled it as having no brand, but weirdly enough, the microphone has a model number, which is BM-800. If you look it up in Google, you'll find tons of reviews about it under different brand names.

BUILD & FEATURES

The microphone has a zinc-alloy housing and a gold-plated steel mesh net making for a somewhat solid build. As condenser mics tend to be very sensitive to even the slightest movement, it also comes with a shock-proof mount and foam cap to minimize unwanted noise.

The mic is technically phantom-powered, meaning you'll be needing a separate mixer or audio interface to provide 48v of power. But thankfully, it also comes with a female XLR to 3.5mm stereo cable which you can plug directly to your computer and have it work anyway without a separate power source. The power derived from your laptop or PC should be enough.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Sensitivity: -32dB±1dB
• Electrical current: 3mA
• Polar Pattern: Uni-directional
• Load impedance: ≥1000 Ω
• Equivalent Noise level: 16dBA
• Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz
• Output Impedance:150Ω±30%(at 1kHz)
• Use of voltage: 48V phantom power supply

SETTING UP

I positioned the arm holder and the mic in a way that the side of the mic with the BM-800 logo will be directly at my face when I use the computer. This is important because the BM-800 is a unidirectional condenser mic, meaning it gets audio mainly on this side with the logo so it has to literally face the source of the sound. The microphone is directly connected to my PC through the motherboard's mic input.

QUALITY TEST

To test the BM-800 and have an idea on how it performs as a microphone, we'll be comparing it with a Zoom H1, a higher-end mic (priced at around P6,000). I'll be reading a paragraph using each of them, and draw our conclusion from the analysis we can gather from that.

Note: Proceed to 3:35 of my video review to hear sample recordings using both microphones.

VERDICT

After doing the test, I realized that it was pointless. First of all, of course the Zoom H1 would win since it's eight times the price of the BM-800. They're in different worlds.  Second, we are not seeing the BM-800 in its full potential because it's not connected to a separate power source. Phantom Power is 48v, a computer's USB port is around 5v, and the 3.5mm mic input we just put it into is way less than that. So the BM-800 is at a huge disadvantage here.

But if there's anything we can pick up from the test, we can at least say that even without Phantom Power, the BM-800 still works like a charm. It's not professional in a sense that you can use it in music production or even for voice overs in your high end corporate clients, but it is enough if you're going to use it for voice comms online like for work and gaming, and even personal projects like making songs, doing a podcast, and so forth.

For P800, which already includes an arm holder, boom arm or whatever you call it, IT'S AWESOME FOR THE PRICE. It's probably the best microphone under P2,000 pesos. And since I have this now and I don't want my Zoom H1 to take a beating due to overuse, I'll be using this one instead when I game, and probably even also use it on my next videos, so watch out for them.

Note: Due to lack of Phantom Power, the BM-800 will have a weak output. Make sure to put the Microphone Volume Microphone Boost to maximum in settings in Windows to be able to use it properly.

Alright, that concludes the review. Do you have any thoughts about the BM-800? Or can you suggest a better mic at the same price range? Write them down at the comments section below, I'd love to hear about them.