Microphone Performance

I tested the microphone of the Thermaltake Isurus V2 Pro by connecting it to my integrated sound card (ASUS SupremeFX S1220 audio codec), the Creative Sound Blaster X3 (external USB sound card), and my Android smartphone (OnePlus 7 Pro).

To review the microphone's sound, 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's 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 was not postprocessed or edited in any way.

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



This is the sound recorded by using the omnidirectional microphone the Thermaltake Isurus Pro V2 is equipped with:






As you can hear, there's a significant difference in microphone performance with it connected to a PC sound card (both integrated and USB) or a smartphone. Starting off with the integrated sound card, the microphone picks up quite a lot of static noise from my PC and sounds very quiet. Only after boosting it by +10 dB does it become loud enough to be usable. Unfortunately, the static noise gets boosted as well. When the microphone is connected to an external USB sound card, the Creative Sound Blaster X3, there is no static noise, but I again had to set the gain to 100% and turn on activate microphone boost to make it loud enough. I never have to push the gain above 85% on traditional analogue gaming headsets.

None of those issues are present on my Android smartphone. Here, my voice is loud enough for chatting with my teammates, and there's no static noise to speak of. Having said that, it's obvious that the Isurus Pro V2 should primarily be used with mobile devices. Based on its microphone performance, I can't recommend combining it with a desktop PC unless you own a USB sound card with a microphone input of good quality.

What causes the aforementioned issue? I'm inclined to blame it on the exact location of the pinhole microphone. As I've mentioned earlier in the review, it's placed on the left earpiece, so there's no way to position it close(r) to your mouth. To illustrate what I mean, I dug up an ancient in-ear headset that came supplied with my old HTC One smartphone. Its pinhole microphone is on the in-line remote control, putting it close to the mouth when the headset is used. As you can hear in the following sample, this makes a big difference in microphone quality, as I can normally use it on my PC sound card without increasing microphone gain from what I'd normally use. In other words, we're comparing the HTC in-ear headset at 85% gain and Thermaltake Isurus Pro V2 at 100% gain, which inherently results in a "louder" background.