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Review: AntLion Audio ModMic

Many of us have spent a large amount of our time wearing headphones. A decent pair of cans plays a surprisingly big role in success with many game genres, most notably first person shooters as the close proximity of the speakers to your ears helps you to hear enemies approaching before you can see them. Of course a headset will also help to keep the house quiet so partners, kids, housemates and neighbours can sleep through your late night quick scope sessions.

But while often expensive, many of the gaming headsets on the market produce average audio quality at best when you compare them to the supreme audio clarity one might expect from a pair of Sennheisers, or the deep low range produced by Bose. As we all know these headphones, primarily designed for music, don’t usually come with a console or PC compatible microphone for screaming obscenities at the player that just t-bagged you, or recording your latest let’s play of Farm Simulator.

Enter the ModMic from AntLion. It’s a little boom microphone that you can attach to almost any pair of headphones, transforming them into your perfect gaming headset. While the idea might not necessarily be the newest with stand alone boom microphones having been around for a while, this iteration of the concept has clearly been designed with a lot of thought and care.

modmic U Bend

The device is fitted to your headphones of choice with a tiny bracket that sticks to your ear cup with adhesive. The powerful magnet built into the bracket then holds the mic itself in place making for effortless fitting, removal and adjustment whilst still being strong enough to keep the microphone exactly where you want it.

I tested the ModMic on PS4, Xbox One and PC for a week and was thoroughly impressed with how well it performed in all three applications thanks to simple setup and excellent audio quality. Using the omni-directional version for this review, the mic picked up mainly major background noise such as the extra sharp racket of pots and pans banging in the kitchen or the high volume of my 4 month old crying, but also registered the noise of my (admittedly loud) mechanical keyboard but wouldn’t register the quieter sound of controller buttons being mashed with vigour. That being said, AntLion also offers a uni-directional model which is meant to significantly reduce all background noise.

With consoles the ModMic unfortunately won’t work right out of the box though. You’ll need to buy an AntLion Y adapter ($19.00 AUD) or similar which will convert your controller’s single 3.5mm audio jack into two for use with the microphone cable and your headphone cable at the same time. Further to this, for those early adopters don’t forget the first build of Xbox One controllers don’t have a 3.5mm audio jack at all so you’ll also need the applicable adapter from Microsoft. On PS4’s DualShock 4 or the newer build of the Xbox One controller the 3.5mm adapter goes straight into the device and on PC the ModMic doesn’t need any adapter and plugs straight into the mic plug in your rig. ModMic is also compatible with Mac use via yet another additional purchase of an audio USB adapter ($25.00 AUD).

modmic fuzz

As far as the usability of the microphone goes I had only a few very minor gripes. Firstly, the cable for the mic is way too long for console use. With your controller right in front of you the 3.3m cable was about 2.3m too long. That being said, the long cable is necessary to cater for the PC users out there who often have their rigs situated below their desk, needing a bit of extra flexibility. Thankfully this problem is partially alleviated with these nifty little clips you can use to attach the ModMic cable to your headphone cable to neaten things up a bit. These are included with the ModMic and more can be purchased if necessary.

Having to use the Y adapter with a controller was also a little annoying as it’s quite large and seemed to get in the way whilst using the smaller DualShock 4. This was slightly less of an issue with the larger Xbox One controller but still a minor annoyance. If the adapter was much smaller, or somehow incorporated into the cable rather than being an additional purchase — and a hefty one at that — these problems might have been less significant.

Another small issue is the position of the mute switch on the mic cable which I found to be situated just a little too far up the cable and often a few centimeters just out of my visual field when looking down for it.

modmic on headphones

The mic itself is simple enough with a flexible boom for perfect positioning and it’s so light you won’t even know it’s there. A U-bend at the cable end of the device ensures the cable will hang straight down rather than bend and the little bracket that attaches the package to your headphones is ingeniously designed. As previously stated the ModMic can be easily removed thanks to the use of strong magnets even whilst your headphones are on your head. And when you’re taking your headphones out of the house without the mic fitted, only a tiny little piece of plastic remains.

Priced at $79.00 AUD, it may seem tough to justify a purchase of a ModMic unless you really, really love the overkill levels of bass produced by your Beats By Dre headphones (I do), and would prefer to use them over your Astro or Turtle Beach headset. However, a high quality, fully featured gaming headset can sting you for somewhere between $120 to $350+ and wont deliver the audio that such a price tag deserves. So if you have a set of cans you already love, $79.00 plus the cost of an adaptor isn’t too difficult to swallow. Especially when you remember your next set of favourite headphones will already be ready for gaming.

The ModMic 4.0 Microphone is an excellent iteration of the stick on boom mic concept. It produces superior chat audio whilst picking up only extreme background noise. Light as a feather and cleverly designed with lots of thought and passion the faults listed above aren’t significant and the device would be a clever purchase for someone already in possession of great headphones rather than buying a whole new headset. As such, it becomes the second peripheral to be branded with the Stevivor “Our Pick” seal of approval.

AntLion Audio’s Omni-directional Modmic 4.0 was reviewed using a promotional product, as provided by the manufacturer.


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About the author

Jay Ball

I'm a big fan of older consoles and can flawlessly complete the first 2 levels of Donkey Kong Country with my eyes closed. These days I still play platformers but also love shooters, arcade racers and action adventure titles. I may or may not be in denial about the death of rhythm games.