Sponsors Aren't SAFE! - NZXT Capsule Microphone
ShortCircuit
·ShortCircuit
·2022-05-05
·
1,279 words · ~6 min read
0:00
(loud buzzer) - Uh Oh.
0:03
So NZXT is getting into the microphone market, and apparently as part of their launch strategy,
0:08
they've sponsored a ShortCircuit unboxing. Good choice NZXT.
0:12
Let's go ahead and get this thing opened up.
0:15
You know, I'm going to do kind of a classic unboxing on this one.
0:19
We're going to start with the box. I know, right? I never do this.
0:23
Designed for gamers. Fair enough. High quality audio, 24-bit.
0:27
Sure. Yup. USB analog to digital conversion. I would certainly hope so.
0:31
Given it's either going to be a USB microphone with an analog to digital converter in it,
0:34
or it's going to be an XLR microphone, which wouldn't do a very good job of simple, there you go.
0:40
Cause that's apparently one of their key selling points for the capsule is that it is completely plug and play,
0:47
including even being tuned to 50% gain right out of the box.
0:51
There's no software utility, no driver installation.
0:55
You just plug it in and go.
0:58
Build the extraordinary. That's right, not just a little bit ordinary,
1:04
this is extraordinary. I know that's not what it means.
1:08
Three meter cable. The idea here is that if you want to mount it to a boom ARM or something like that,
1:13
you're not going to have any issues with it. And that's a really nice feeling sheath,
1:17
feels like a high quality cable. Want to know something cool?
1:20
I no longer have to take anyone's word for it.
1:24
Fetch me my cable tester! While we wait for that, let's have a look
1:27
at what else is in here. We've got a 1/4-20 to 3/8 inch mounting adaptor.
1:31
So this is going to be if you want to mount it to a boom ARM or some other kind of base but,
1:36
the whole idea is that, with no assembly whatsoever,
1:40
you don't have to do any of that. You can just plunk it right down onto your desk.
1:44
It has an integrated pop filter. So it's a Side-Address microphone,
1:48
just a little something like that, Cardioid pickup pattern. Oh, I should probably show how the let's come back.
1:55
Something like that, got a microphone Jack right there, so that's for monitoring your own audio.
1:59
You can also just use it as your audio interface if you want. USB-C, so that's the single connection
2:04
that we're going to use, Ahh! After we determine that this cable is okay. I think they did a really great job of the look.
2:09
Thanks Colin. - [Colin] Why are we whispering? You have a whole studio.
2:13
- Um, I'm just, I'm just excited. Supposed to go like this and like this
2:21
and it'll tell us, (buzzer)
2:26
Uh oh, oh, you know what?
2:29
It's okay, so we can see here that our continuity is good.
2:34
Our signal integrity is good. And the only problem we have is DC resistance.
2:39
You know, all the pins are mapped correctly. Everything there is good, but there's too much resistance,
2:45
which makes sense, because this is a three meter long USB 2 cable.
2:51
What that means, is that if you had a very high draw device at the end,
2:54
that's close to the maximum of what USB 2 can support.
2:58
You might not be able to power it properly with this cabling, it might drop in
3:02
and out intermittently. Looking at the bottom of the unit, it asks for five volts,
3:05
one and a half amps, which means I would actually say that NZXT might be flying a little close to the sun
3:11
with this long of a USB 2 cable.
3:14
Theoretically, they've validated it with this particular microphone.
3:18
So it hopefully shouldn't cause any problems, but I guess we'll find out soon enough.
3:23
That's cool, here I was unscrewing this whole thing
3:27
and getting really confused. What you actually do is, there we go.
3:35
Okay, that's way better, that's awesome. And this is just to make it look way cleaner
3:40
if you want to mount it with, with a boom ARM. Not right now though, right now, we're just going
3:44
to use the stock stand. Now we shall see just how plug and play it can be.
3:50
Poor NZXT there're like, (whimpering) "But we included the long cable so people could, route it around
3:56
the things and..." And I'd be like, "Your long cable has too much resistance."
4:03
Two separate knobs, one on the bottom is for your headphone monitoring.
4:07
The one on the top is for your microphone gain and that's it, real simple.
4:13
It's funny, they say truly plug and play, but are they ready for Linus level loudness here?
4:18
I'm definitely peaking a little bit here.
4:21
So let's go ahead and get the microphone adjusted down a little bit.
4:25
This is a nice touch, I like these little grips on the knobs.
4:28
They're super easy to grab onto even though they're quite small. Still coming in a little bit hot, we're going
4:32
to want to be right around that red zone in OBS in order to get the best balance of loudness
4:38
for the stream while not while not peaking and causing that,
4:43
that crackly sound. I'm recording right now and I'm moving it around a little bit.
4:46
It does have an internal shock mount, so we just want to see how much,
4:50
if any of that we're going to hear in the recording.
4:53
Normally you shouldn't be manhandling your microphone while you're talking into it, but if you're gaming in particular,
4:59
which is who they're targeting with this product, then it's, it's not uncommon for you to be moving around or,
5:05
or bump your table a little bit, and if the, if you have a microphone that picks up all of that noise,
5:10
it's going to be pretty unpleasant. Speaking of all of that noise, the G 915,
5:13
isn't exactly the loudest keyboard on the market, but it's not designed to be specifically super quiet either.
5:19
So let's go ahead and just make some clickity clacking noises, kind of where it would be relative
5:24
to the microphone, more like over here, I guess.
5:27
All right, so that's what you can kind of expect if you're a click, click, clickity, clacking
5:31
behind your microphone. And then the last thing I wanted to check was
5:34
if you had a boom ARM and you're able to get the mic a little bit close to your mouth,
5:38
this is really where you'd want a microphone of this style,
5:41
for the best possible recording quality, just going to keep turning that down.
5:46
And this is what I would expect this bad boy to sound like
5:49
mounted a little bit closer to your mouth. So if you want more of like that radio voice sound
5:53
then, you know, get your boom ARM, get it set up here. And it also keeps it off your desk and out of your way
5:58
for your keyboard and mouse as well. Not bad, surprisingly little of that is coming
6:02
through in my monitoring. That's pretty cool.
6:06
And that's it that's all. This is our unboxing of the NZXT capsule.
6:09
You can find it linked down in the video description. Thanks NZXT for sponsoring this video
6:13
and to you for watching it. Subscribe to ShortCircuit. - [Crew] Yeah!