RØDE PodMic Dynamic Microphone

The RØDE PodMic price seems to vary constantly but at the moment it is available from Amazon for £89.07 which is not bad given the quality and reputation of this dynamic microphone so popular with podcasters, gamers and live streamers. However, good though it is, it does have some major issues potential buyers should be aware of.

I do not feel competent to go into the more arcane details of this mic, there are plenty of technical reviews out there to do that and so I will confine myself to just giving my impressions of it as an end user.

In the distinctly upmarket box can be found the microphone itself, and a rather poorly laid out and uninformative user guide. Build quality of the 172 x 109 x 62 mm microphone, made entirely from metal, is first-rate, not only is it superbly engineered it is also built like a tank and at 937g feels like one too.

The microphone connects to your system using an XLR cable, although no cable is included in the box. It has an integrated yoke mount with dual 3/8″ and 5/8″ threads, so it should work with any stand or boom arm straight from the box. It has a pretty standard frequency range of 20Hz ~ 20kHz and a unidirectional polar pattern. As with any microphone of this type you cannot just plug it into your system and expect it to work, the signal will need to be boosted first and this was the first of its problems, at least for me.

I tested it with an M1 Mac Mini running Audacity with the microphone plugged into a Behringer UMC22 Audio Interface, the built-in preamp of the UMC22 being enough to boost the output of every other mic I have used to an acceptable level. Not so with the PodMic as the boosted level was still far too low to be of any use. I found I also had to connect an in-line Klark Teknik Mic Booster CT 1 to obtain a useable signal. With both the UMC22 and CT1 connected the output level was fine and the actual quality of the microphone signal was excellent.

The other point to bear in mind is the weight of the microphone which may be too much for some boom arms. I use the heavy-duty Compass boom arm from Blue Microphones and this supported it perfectly well but I suspect some entry-level models may not be able to bear the weight without sagging.

Audio quality, however, is excellent, with a clear full range noise-free signal with plosives nicely restrained due to the Internal pop filter. Once the gain issues have been resolved and the mic correctly balanced and configured the sound quality is about as good as you can expect for the medium-range price.

This is a great microphone, well made and superbly engineered, which is capable of giving high end if not outstanding results. The price is not unreasonable for the quality but remember that you may well need additional purchases before it integrates fully into your system.