Microphone Performance

The AVerMedia Live Streamer Mic 350 is equipped with two 14-millimeter electret condenser capsules. The capsules offer two different polar patterns: cardioid and omnidirectional. The specified frequency response of the capsules is 20-20,000 Hz, and the built-in ADC (analog-to-digital converter) is capable of 24-bit/96 kHz operation.

The cardioid polar pattern is what you'll want to use if you're the only one sitting in front of the microphone. The capsules will pick up the sound in front of them while rejecting (to a certain level) everything coming from their sides and even more from behind. In practice, that means your room noise won't be as audible as with other polar patterns, especially if the microphone is close to your mouth.


The omnidirectional pattern makes the microphone equally sensitive from all sides. This can be useful, for example, when you want to record several people and/or instruments by placing the microphone in the center of the room. For better or for worse, the omnidirectional pattern will inevitably pick up a lot of room acoustics. While the omnidirectional pattern is generally much less sensitive to the precise microphone and speaker positioning, the cardioid pattern is still generally a better choice for solo usage, because most users don't sit in acoustically treated rooms. The omnidirectional polar pattern also eliminates the proximity effect so your voice will sound much less bassy, even if you're sitting up close to the microphone. Many users will prefer the bassy nature of the cardioid polar pattern.

Let's take a listen to the AVerMedia Live Streamer Mic 350 microphone in its most natural state – while it's positioned on the table between the user and the keyboard. For this test, I've adjusted the microphone gain to 70, as that value resulted in a good balance of voice and background noise pickup. The cardioid polar pattern is used for this test.



In its raw, unfiltered, non-equalized form, the microphone sounds very solid when attached to the supplied base and placed on the table. Due to the distance from my mouth, there's no proximity effect to boost the depth of my voice, so the recording may sound a bit flat. The clarity and intelligibility are good, providing a strong basis for further testing. This is the most basic use case for the AVerMedia Live Streamer Mic 350; one you might opt for when connecting the microphone to a mobile device or when conducting a quick Zoom call. For anything more serious, the microphone will be much closer to your mouth and mounted on a boom arm.

That conveniently brings us to the next pair of samples. Here the microphone can be heard again in cardioid mode, only this time mounted on the Live Streamer Arm and placed close to my mouth. I've recorded two samples, with and without the Live Streamer Pop Filter applied.




With the proximity effect in action, the AVerMedia Live Streamer Mic 350 sounds much fuller and warmer. It's also apparent that the noise floor is very low, which helps with the overall cleanliness of the sound. There's no significant difference in my recorded samples with or without the pop filter applied, but my testing showed that the pop filter gives you slightly more room to play with the microphone gain. The microphone starts having issues with plosives at higher gain levels compared to when the pop filter is not installed. Overall, however, the Live Streamer Mic 350 is pretty resistant to popping noises, as long as you don't put it so close to your mouth that you're touching it with your nose.

It's interesting to note that AVerMedia doesn't seem to be using the capsule tuning to color the voice to sound like a radio broadcast or a professional podcast, which is what some manufacturers go for with their "streaming microphones." AVerMedia achieves that with the Scenario section of the VibeEngine software suite. Take a look at the following video, where I go through the four available sound profiles.


The Podcast scenario is an instant winner for me. It makes the microphone sound very pleasant, without adding any distortion, artifacts, or excessive noise. The Chat scenario sounds too thin and adds unpleasant shrillness to my voice. The Singing and Instrument scenarios are content-specific, so if you're singing or playing an instrument into the AVerMedia Live Streamer Mic 350, definitely give those a try and see if you like the results.

The VibeEngine software suite has one other feature that I liked using: the AI Noise Reduction. Take a listen to the following two samples, where I'm using the AI Noise Reduction technology to block out the background chatter in cardioid and omnidirectional modes.




These are very good results; my voice remained completely unchanged, but the background noise was almost completely gone. Of course, the situation is worse in omnidirectional mode, because the capsules deliberately pick up sounds from all sides, so the background noise filtering sounds choppier.

One feature of the VibeEngine doesn't impress, and that's the Clipping Shield. It's supposed to prevent the sound from clipping in case you get too excited and start shouting into the microphone. Here's a sample where I toggle the Clipping Shield on and off.



Some harshness specific to capsule distortion does seem to be slightly ironed out, but the difference is fairly minor. The Clipping Shield feature is a far cry from something like the Clipguard technology used by the Elgato Wave 3, which is based around a second audio channel running inside the microphone at a reduced volume, to which the microphone automatically switches when clipping occurs.

The following sample illustrates the voice timbre of the AVerMedia Live Streamer Mic 350 in omnidirectional mode.



The sound quality is very similar to using the microphone in cardioid mode from further away, i.e. when placed on the table. My voice is less bassy and warm, but that's an inherent characteristic of the omnidirectional polar pattern. I, unfortunately, didn't have a room of people to demonstrate the spatial voice pickup in omnidirectional mode, but I'd definitely consider using the microphone for such purposes. It's worth noting you can apply all effects and filters, including Scenario sound profiles, in both cardioid and omnidirectional modes.

Here's how the AVerMedia Live Streamer Mic 350 handles table tapping, stand touching, and background noise in cardioid mode. The background noise is generated by my mechanical keyboard, the Varmilo Moonlight 109, equipped with EC Sakura V2 switches.




The AVerMedia Live Streamer Mic 350 does a very good job of handling background noise in cardioid mode, as well as dealing with accidental touches of its stand or body. In this aspect, the AM350 performs significantly better than most other microphones I tested.

Finally, here's a demonstration of all 12 available Voice Changer choices.



Do with that what you will.