NZXT Capsule Cardioid USB Microphone Review

Performance

When powered up, the bottom of the microphone lights up with a white LED ring light, it’s not so bright that it would be a distraction, but it does give a clear indication of when the microphone is live.

Tap the mute button and it’ll turn a rich red colour, so you can easily tell when it is muted. A visual indicator is a big advantage when you’re streaming, as you can’t just keep tabbing out of a game to check Windows Sound Manager.

In terms of performance, I must admit I’m very happy with the “default” performance of the microphone. Key focus on the word default for good reason. When you plug-and-play, Windows sets it to 24-bit/48kHz. This is basically the same as what rivals have to offer. As you can hear, it sounds absolutely excellent. There’s a good dynamic range, it doesn’t pick up unwanted pops and clicks, it has a good but not overpowering bass response, and really, it just sounds very clean and natural. I can talk with it right in front of me, or set it further back on my desk and sit back a few feet from the microphone and it still sounds good. You can really hear how tired my voice is, it’s too damn hot in here today!

The keyboard test was very close, and it actually did really well. The background noise test was loud cafe noises on my speakers, and it did REALLY fantastic at ignoring those. Plus, the distance and whisper test right into the microphone really highlights the dynamics better than I expected, you could hear me clearly even though I was louder and further away, or right up in your face with it.

Setting it to 24-bit/96kHz seems to cause some issue though, which is a shame as this is one of the main selling points of the microphone. It sounds like an EQ is getting in the way, or most likely a high-pass filter as we’re losing the low end of the range, and it sounds a lot thinner. Now, I did tinker with the EQ myself after recording, and it sounded rather fantastic. However, that’s beyond the “plug and play” nature of the microphone. I’ve spoken to NZXT, and they say it’s something they can fix with a firmware update, and we’ll be revisiting this when they do.