Antlion ModMic4

WE HAVE A PENCHANT at MaximumPC for high-quality audio. Although there are some pretty snazzy gaming headsets, they tend to meander well into the $250plus range for anything close to decent sound reproduction.

Turn your head to audiophile offerings without a microphone, however, and you can easily find pairs for under $150 (Audiotechnica’s ATH-M50Xs, for example). For the vast majority, no mic is no problem, but for gamers, lacking a way to communicate with your buddies can be a deal breaker. And for those unwilling to chunk out for a $200 dedicated desktop microphone, there’s not a huge deal of choice.

Except, maybe there is. Antlion saw this gap in the market, and jumped in with this fantastic modular microphone.

Available in two models, the 4 and the 5 (the 5 has both a four-pole and a USB adapter), the ModMic attaches to the side of any headset with a small adhesive magnetic clip. Don’t need the mic today? Pull it off your headset, and place it in its faux leather case. Sound quality is impeccable, and the mic supports up to 24-bit 192KHz without worry, delivering some fantastically crisp and clean sound; not too bass-heavy, not too tinny. The adhesive sticker is easy to remove, and it comes with a variety of clips to secure the ModMic’s cable to your standard headphone cable, too. There’s very little to dislike—we just wish it rotated a bit better on that magnetic mount.