CAD Audio U9 USB Mini Condenser Microphone – Cardioid

For my win10 PC connected to my flatscreen in my living room (lets call it a HTPC+), I love using Cortana with this microphone. My constraints were that it had to perform like the amazon echo (eg. omni-directional, work from a large distance, etc), but it needed to be much cheaper than the echo dot itself. At the time of writing, echo dot was ~$50 and this mic was ~$25 In my opinion, the mic works great. For example: I spoke "hey cortana ...show me images of el conquistador in puerto rico" (which, by the way, is an awesome place) as well as other visually interactive phrases ("...start subnautica", "...how do I fix a toilet", etc) and it picked up every word of my very american voice from 15ft away from center. The mic is advertised as omni-directional, but it has a swivel head which makes it seem directional. Regardless, I stood 15ft away then 7 feet off from center (ie. 25 degree angle from the mic according to some trigonometry) and cortana was also able to interpret what I was saying without issue. The device also "looks" wide, but fit comfortably into my usb hub without interfering with my other plugs. Some caveats: 1) this device has a 3.5 jack for headphones; if you use it only as a microphone, be sure to disable this device as a speaker in device manager. 2) be sure to use a powered USB hub. I received the error "USB controller resource exceeded" after I plugged in the mic, even with my powered USB hub. I have an xbox wireless receiver, a keyboard dongle, and a bluetooth dongle plugged in there already. After a bit of research, I realized I was plugged into a USB-3 port on the PC; indicated by a blue-colored USB port. I moved the USB hub over to a USB-2 port on the PC, indicated by a non-blue-colored USB port, and everything seemed to work ok eg. keyboard, xbox controller, mic. Admittedly, I never really stress all peripherals at once. Next step for me is to try some cortana scripts. Happy New Year!

This Microphone picks up sound in a room much better than the internal microphone in my Macbook Pro. What really disappoints me is that it is horribly sensitive to wind. Just sitting near a window with a light breeze, totally ruins a recording. When there is a breeze, I cannot hear anything of what I'm recording. So if you will use this in an area with little to no draft, it should work very well. The mic itself also has the ability to rotate around the usb so that its target receiving area can be either toward the computer user or away.

I bought this item to record meetings. It does work. However, I receive a high pitch feedback, even when I put the sound on mute.

This is a great upgrade form the on-board mic on my Macbook Air. When using the on-board mic I would have to bump the input all the way up to be able to hear the lecture afterward. When using the U9 I can actually lower the input to a setting below the default position. The U9 provides much better sound quality. It also isolates the audio from the sound of typing that I would get from the on-board mic. There are only two downsides for me. I use the U9 with a Macbook Air and the thickness of the microphone won't allow the Air to sit level without putting stress on the USB port. My solution was to purchase a retractable male-to-female USB extension. This is not a problem with the U9, rather it is a problem with the Air being too thin. The only aspect of the U9 that I don't like is the illuminated ring below the microphone. But I'll simply cover it with electrical tape or hobby paint.

very good pickup from across the room. Just is a bit bigger an uglier than I would like. But it does what I wanted perfectly.

The sound quality is awful. There is so much electronic noise that it sounds like a 1920's cheap recording. Don't ever buy this microphone...the worst. I threw mine away.

Records very well across the room. If I use it with my Desktop PC, I use a USB extension cable to keep it away from the hard drive and fan motors which produce unwanted noise in the circuitry of the microphone. Works perfectly in my SSD netbook that has no motors.

I bought this mic after several others usb mics displayed ultra low audio when plugged into my computer. This one is loud and clear. In fact I had to go into my mic settings and turn it down! I have it plugged into a usb port about 2ft from my mouth and it picks up clearly and without a lot of background noise. The mic can be turned any direction and seems to be solidly built. The only bad thing I can say about it is that I wish it had come with a foam wind screen.

Un peu encombrant pour l'usage que je souhaitais en faire. Cependant, le son transmis est clair, même à distance (raisonnablement). Attention cependant, un éclairage sur la base du micro est présent et ne se voit pas sur les photos.

good

Perfect very good quality

Handy little device that doesn't take up much space and seems to pick up sound very well.

Loud , too much sensitive , great for chating and all I dont use it , tried to record some songs , didn't work.