Here’s another entry into my “Budget Tubing” series, and this time I’m taking a look at one of the most common entry level mics out there, the BM-800. I say it’s the most common because just about every cheap audio tech supplier has their own rebranded version of this mic, though they sometimes change the model number slightly (I’m looking at you Neewer NW-800).
Not only is the BM-800 sold by a multitude of companies, but it is also pretty inexpensive despite having a nice solid build. The average price for this mic is between $15 and $25, though I lucked out and got mine new in box for $10. With the package I ordered I got the mic, a shock mount, a 3/8 to 5/8 thread adapter for the shock mount, an XLR to 3.5mm audio cable, and a wind guard puff. If I wanted to spend a little more money I could have gotten everything listed previously, as well as a boom arm, a proper XLR cable, a phantom power supply, and a pop filter for a grand total of $40.
One very interesting thing about the BM-800 is that it can be used both with and without phantom power, unlike a lot of XLR condenser microphones. If you plug the included XLR to 3.5mm audio cable into the BM-800 you can use the mic with any audio card that has a 3.5mm mic jack, though admittedly your results may vary. In the above video I do an audio test using the 3.5mm cable and my latop’s sound card, and the resulting audio quality is quiet and noisy. However, I have also used this mic and cable combo with a USB audio capture device meant for recording music, and it sounds great despite not using phantom power.
Where the BM-800 really shines, however, is with the use of phantom power. Near the end of the video I plug the mic into my Behringer Xenyx Q1202USB audio mixer, and I was very surprised by how great it sounded. It doesn’t outshine my Audio Technica AT2020, but for a $20 mic you could do far worse. Also, the fact that I can use the BM-800 with a proper audio interface also means that I can actually monitor my audio while I’m recording, unlike most of the USB microphones I’ll be reviewing in the future.
All in all I think the BM-800 is actually a great grab for the price. The fact that you can actually use it with your standard audio card (despite it not sounding that great in some cases) is a nice little bonus, since most people beginning their content creation journey won’t have access to audio interfaces with phantom power.
