Microphone Performance

The microphone of the Drop + Sennheiser PC38X was tested by connecting it to the EVGA NU Audio sound card and a sound card integrated on the motherboard. The motherboard in question is the ASUS MAXIMUS XI Formula equipped with the SupremeFX S1220 audio codec. To review the microphone's sound and compare it to similar headsets, I used the Adam A7X speakers and Shure SRH840 headphones, both of which fall into the studio monitor category. I connected them to the Audiolab M-DAC, a high-quality digital-to-analog converter that functions as an external sound card when connected to a PC. Testing was done in Discord, Skype, and Audacity, and I also used Audacity to record the sound from the microphone. The sound was recorded with microphone sensitivity set to 100% and not post-processed or edited in any way.

For reference, this voice recording was made with the Rode NT-USB, a high-quality studio microphone:



This is the sound recorded by using the retractable bi-directional microphone of the Drop + Sennheiser PC38X:




As far as analog gaming headset microphones go, this is an example of one of the better ones. My voice sounds airy, clean, tonally well-balanced, and perfectly understandable. I didn't run into any issues with plosives even though the capsule isn't protected with a pop filter, sibilance, or excessive compression, including when my background was fairly noisy. In short, your teammates will love you for having a microphone that sounds this good. It should be noted that the Sennheiser Game One had an even better microphone than this one, primarily because it was able to pick up more depth in the voice, but compared to most other analog gaming headsets on the market, the Drop + Sennheiser PC38X shines yet again. Take a listen of the samples below for a couple of interesting comparisons. The last sample is recorded with the V-Moda BoomPro, a standalone microphone that plugs into any headphones with a built-in 3.5-mm port.