BEACN Mic USB C Broadcast Dynamic Mic for Content Creators
design
BEACN has found a pleasant balance with the design of the BEACN Mic, neatly riding the line between refined and understated while keeping a little modern gamer flare. It’s a confident first showing from a new brand and perhaps more importantly it’s one that avoids falling into the pitfalls some challenger brands do of going over the top with an outlandish design.
The BEACN Mic‘s all-metal body feels suitably high end with your choice of either a matte black or white colour scheme divided neatly in half with an oversized windsock. While it’s nice to see an included pop filter like this, it’s disappointing you’re stuck with just a single colour choice with no way to swap it like the ones included with the Logitech Yeti Studio which has set the bar for that kind of thing and is almost an identical price. It’s black on both colour ways too which tends to ruin a bright white vibe, I’d like to have seen more flexibility here.
The BEACN Mic’s touch of flare comes from the RGB LED ring that wraps the middle of this USB-C mic and while it’s nice enough, you can’t really see it if you’re addressing the mic properly so I actually forgot it was there most of the time. When you do look for it though the colours are impressively vivid and the effect transitions are smooth. The diffusing ring does a good job of hiding the individual LEDs so it all comes across very clean and not gimmicky.
check latest prices
Much like the Yeti Studio there’s no stand included with the BEACN Mic so you’re forced into using a mic arm or stand, both of which you’ll need to source and supply yourself. The mount itself did a good job of letting me find and lock in the perfect angle, though I did find the connection between the bracket and my mic arm oddly confusing. For a mic that looks pretty simple across the board there feels like a lot of moving parts on the connection that didn’t seem to get involved in anything, I’m sure I was no doubt missing something very obvious about what they’re for, but it feels like an over-engineered solution.
As you’d expect, the adapter thread on the BEACN Mic is a standard size and so happily joined up to my Elgato Wave Arm without a fuss. Be mindful which mic arm you choose though because this is a pretty heavy mic, at more than 750g some cheaper arm options might not handle the weight of the BEACN Mic too comfortably.
performance
The gap between USB and XLR microphones has been closing rapidly over the last few years. Where purists would previously tell you XLR setups had a real advantage, USB microphones like the BEACN Mic are taking the fight to them. On the whole, BEACN’s offering here is capable of producing excellent quality audio at a level on par with some XLR options, though it’s lost some of USB’s simplicity to get there.
When I first test microphones I like to do a pretty raw run straight out of the box, I plug them in, fire up Windows’ built in Sound Recorder app and chat away. It’s about getting a sense of what the microphone itself is capable of producing before any processing or EQ wizardry takes over, even if that software boost is first-party. Strangely though, that’s not an option with the BEACN Mic, without first installing the BEACN App the microphone simply doesn’t exist as far as Windows is concerned. And while a lot of the benefit of BEACN’s option over competitors does come from this app, it just doesn’t sit right with me that I need some software in order to use it.
Mercifully though the experience with the BEACN App is actually very strong and I was impressed by just how customisable things were. It’s an educational experience as much as anything, the app does a great job of laying out your various tweaking options simply and more importantly provides helpful tooltips that explain what each adjustment is doing as it does it. You could get lost for hours making tiny adjustments to each aspect to really fine tune the perfect sound but I found it also didn’t take a huge amount of work to get to a pretty decent sounding output.
check latest prices
With a few clicks I was able to produce audio from the BEACN Mic that was rich and full, my voice sounded nicely rounded without coming across overly processed. The clean, crisp vocal performance here is on par with other premium USB options I’ve tested like the Logitech Yeti Studio or RODE PodMic USB.
I did feel I needed to have my mouth closer to the BEACN Mic than competitors in order to achieve this performance though and it was noticeably more punishing on poor mic etiquette than others too. For podcasters this is unlikely to be a problem but for particularly animated livestreamers or gamers it’s something to consider, the BEACN Mic wants you to give it your attention or it will punish you for it with thin, distant sounding results pretty quickly.
While the app is required anyway, BEACN has proprietary noise removal technology onboard the BEACN Mic and I was impressed with its ability to focus in on my voice. Distracting noises from things like keyboard clacking didn’t come through into the final mix at any kind of impactful level and in some cases you couldn’t even hear them at all. I did however find the BEACN mic runs considerably quieter overall than other microphones I’ve tested and I had to crank my gain levels up to compensate. Thankfully this didn’t result in a drop in quality though and everything still sounded clear and sharp even when bumped up.
summed up
It may be a debut effort but the BEACN Mic feels mature and experienced. It’s a risky move to try and take a seat at the big boy table from the start but as a microphone for streaming and content creation there’s a lot to like here and little of substance to complain about. The price itself is my main cause of concern because $279/£286 is steep and there are plenty of other options that won’t set you back quite as much but can still produce great sound. Plus, if you’re building a new setup you’ll need to factor in the cost of a mic arm too.
While the BEACN App is powerful, easy to use and allows for a lot of customisation, whether this justifies the heavy investment you’ll need to make in the hardware I’m not quite sure. One thing is clear though, the BEACN Mic is capable of delivering excellent quality vocals for streamers, podcasters and creators so if you do grit your teeth and bear the expense you’re likely to be pleased with the result.
