A Glowing Contender in a Crowded Market?
Take a quick gander at the store listings on somewhere like Amazon, and you’ll notice that there is no shortage of microphones kicking around on the market. In fact, there are thousands of them, from big brands to smaller lesser known manufacturers.
Mostly, we’d suspect that they all do a similar thing – allow the end user to inject their voice to the baying world, whether that be through team calls, family meetings or streaming of their lives and games.
We’ve been hands-on with a few of those microphones over the years, mightily impressed by Shure’s MV6, and equally taken by Maono’s DM30 RGB.
And now we’re back with a step up from that latter brand, with Maono’s DM40 Wireless Condenser Microphone. We’re not sure we like it quite as much as the Shure, but it’s not far from the quality of that market leader.
Sleek Design and RGB Glow
The Maono DM40 is a really neat piece of kit. From straight out of the box, this is an all-black mic that sits pretty atop of a lovely little stand. Rubber texturing on the bottom allows for a decent grip to any desk, but we guess that also allows for buffing out any knocks or bumps that may accidentally occur when in use. From there, the DM40 is fitted with a pop filter front and centre, logo’d with Maono’s brand all over it.
The stand allows for some up/down manoeuvrability, ensuring that you can get the DM40 situated pretty much as you see fit. There is no left or right movement here though, but with the small footprint that the DM40 brings, shifting it left or right is super easy.
The mic itself sits in the stand, thanks to a cleverly crafted shock mount, further dampening any knocks and knicks, whilst an oversized volume dial completes the set up. That’s pretty much all you’re getting aesthetically, but there’s no doubt that the DM40 looks good situated on a desk.
And it looks even better when switched on. Very much like anything in the gaming sphere at this time, the DM40 is fully RGB’d up, and as soon as you switch it on, the mic itself starts cycling a variety of colours. In a word, it looks flipping great, even more so should you view it through the pop filter. With this thing on a desk, kicking around next to an RGB keyboard or the like, your set-up is going to absolutely pop. You’ve got the opportunity to personalise things further with additional presses of the power button too, cycling through a whole range of colours.
Simple Controls and Solid Sounds
Further is a touch sensitive button on the roof of the DM40, with which a quick tap mutes and unmutes things. You’ve also got some noise cancellation settings up there too, so if you feel you need to adjust settings more than by how the DM40 runs straight out of the box, you can. For us, we’ve found Maono to have this very much set in a way that suits us, especially for podcasting and any voicework for our Youtube channel.
The volume dial is pretty nice to use too, although personally we’d prefer some kind of notched feel to the volume controls, whether that be for the mic itself or any attached headphones through the 3.5mm jack. It’s fine and all that, with a press of the dial switching between mic and headphones, but some kind of notch would have been appreciated. Instead, Maono have decided to run a flashing light when max and min levels are reached.
Wired, Wireless, and AI
The Maono DM40 can be used wired, with an included USB-C to USB-C cable found in the box, whilst a further USB-A adapter is also chucked in for those preferring some older tech. But it is also equally adept at making the most of a wireless lifestyle. Don’t worry about losing any USB receiver either as Maono have included a nifty little storage slot around the back of the stand. Yes, that’s appreciated.
A USB-C receiver, plugged into either a laptop or mobile phone (should you so wish) seems to bring some decent, non-laggy voicework, with it all equally easy to set-up as to that of a cable. It means that Maono have your back, no matter whether you prefer to use the guarantee of a cable, or the flexibility of a wireless world. And we’ve not had any complaints from others to the quality of voice being sent either wired or wireless – it’s all been super solid, super clear and super simple to use.
For us, that’s all we want from the mic, but the DM40 also has some, um, interesting, AI voice changing tools built in with ten differing voice modes. We’ll admit, this is of absolutely no interest to us; we’re way too long in the tooth to worry about such stuff. But if you are looking to add some ‘creativity’ to your voice and streams, crack on. Please, just warn us when you are planning to use such a ‘feature’ and we’ll ensure we’re busy elsewhere.
Minor Gripes: The Muted Mute Button
There are a couple of other things we don’t like too. We sit here now and can’t see whether we have the DM40 PRO muted or not, with the pop filter frame obscuring the mute light on top of the mic. Yes, it doesn’t take much to move an inch or two, but we’ve been using this mic a fair old bit, and that’s become a bit of a bug bear.
Similarly, the power controls are situated underneath the mic. Again, they are fine, but that button does feel a little flimsy in use. We’re not saying it’s going to break any time soon, and it hardly gets touched aside from when we fancy messing around with the colourings of the DM40, but it’s something to note.
A Solid Mic with Niche Features
On the whole though, the Maono DM40 microphone is a nice, solid mic that should well fit into any gaming set-up with ease. It looks good in the all-black colour scheme, but really brightens up the place as the RGB lighting comes to the fore.
With good sounds, bright colours and a price tag that will tempt, if you’re in the market for a new mic for gaming, streaming or everyday use, get the Maono DM40 PRO on your list.
Huge thanks go out to Maono for providing the DM40 PRO for review. You’ll be able to pick up a unit for yourself from Maono direct for around $85.99/£80. You’ll also find it on Amazon.
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