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$69.00
The CM-1000 Conference Microphone provides an effective, affordable, and extensible solution to conference recording. It is designed to work with any digital recorder with a standard USB plug. Sound quality is exceptional, the price is reasonable, and it compares favorably to the more expensive offerings by the major manufacturers.
| Dimensions | 3 × 6 cm |
|---|---|
| Brand | VEC |
| Item model number | CM-1000 USB |
| Item Weight | 6.4 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 9 x 3 x 6 inches |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 9 x 3 x 6 inches |
| Color | Black |
| Power Source | Usb Plug |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. |
| ASIN | B008BS3CF8 |
| Date First Available | August 27, 2012 |
| Manufacturer | VEC |
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R. Ver Steeg –
Affordable solution for hybrid classroom – help kids online hear kids in classroom.HIGHLY RECOMMENDEDThe problem I was trying to solve:My wife teaches in a hybrid class room – some kids logging into a video conference from home, the rest (about 16) are in the classroom with one computer logged into the video conference (sound over classroom speaker, video displayed on a smart board). The kids in the class room can hear the kids at home just fine because kids at home each have their own microphone built-in to their device. But with only one microphone in the class room, the kids at home can’t hear the kids in the class room clearly. My wife was having to constantly repeat what kids in classroom were saying. My wife had a drama unit coming up based on a script that has LOTS of parts. She’d normally have the kids read the parts but that wasn’t going to work if the online kids couldn’t hear what the class room kids were saying.I researched a lot of tele-conferencing solutions including speaker phones and one-piece microphone arrays. The ones that seemed like they would work for a room full of kids were way too expensive. Then I found the CM-1000USB and it’s sibling product the CM-1000. Before your read any further, I’ll tell you that my wife was able to assign parts to both kids at home and kids in class – it worked great, she was thrilled. The coverage isn’t 100% perfect but the less then perfect parts are a matter of 1) adjusting mic placement and 2) possibly adding another mic if mic placement alone doesn’t do the trick. For now, it works well enough that my wife hasn’t been in any hurry “fix” it.To set this up, you plug the CM-1000USB into an available USB port on your computer. You can then plug multiple CM-1000s into the CM-1000USB and other CM-1000s to create a daisy-chain. Multiple microphones allow you to effectively cover a larger area/more people – the computer sees 1 microphone no matter how many mics you connect this way.These mics are plug-and-play on the Windows 10 computers I tested. As soon as I plugged in, the CM-1000USB, the computer recognized it and started using it as the default microphone. If you start/join a video conference it should also see this as the default mic – if it doesn’t, video conferencing apps let you choose which mic to use. [See USB PORTS at the end of this review for some caveats about certain USB ports].I bought one CM-1000USB and two CM-1000’s to cover a room large enough to hold 30 students sitting at student desks. Because of where the computer was located (and lack of more extension cables), I strung the mics from the ceiling roughly down the middle from side-to-side. I mentioned tuning the mic placement earlier – a better way to run the mics would be down the middle from front-to-back (or visa-versa). That way, no one would have the mics behind them. This should be possible without moving the computer – just more extension cables. But even this less-than-optimal mic placement is working for my wife. See HANGING THE MICS at the end of this review for comments on hanging these mics from the ceiling.RANGEPeople ask how far away these mics will pick up sound. That’s just one of the key things to consider. I’m not qualified to speak on any remotely technical acoustic topic so I’m going to keep this list very basic.Range – Person Speaking to Mic:I tested the CM-1000USB in a large, quiet room and the mic could pick up my voice from 25 feet away (Your results may vary based on acoustics of the room background noise, etc.). But consider the following: * Other participants in a video conference will have to turn their volume up to hear you if you are 25 feet away. If you have some people with their own mic (like remote learners) and you sitting 25 feet away, other participants may have to adjust their volume depending on who’s talking. * In rooms where there’s a lot of background noise (noisy air conditioners, outside noises), a voice from 25 feet away will be harder to hear over the background noise.Relative Range – furthest person from the mic vs closest person to the mic. If the furthest person is 20 feet from the mic and the closest person is 5 feet way, it will – again – likely be harder for other participants to get the volume right.Three mics seemed like it would be enough to address the range concerns above (and they got the job done in this case). You can always add more later if you need better coverage. Just plug in the additional mic – no extra setup required.CONNECTING THE MICSThe CM-1000USB and CM-1000 both come with 10 feet of cable attached. As long as you don’t need to space them any further apart than that, you don’t need anything else. If you are running cords above false ceiling tiles, you’ll likely need additional extension cables.If you are running cables near equipment like fluorescent lighting fixtures, use shielded cables to avoid electrical noise. See Accessories towards the end of this review for details on cables adapters. I used shielded cable and had to run one of them directly next to a fluorescent fixture – zero electrical interference. See HANGING THE MICS for additional info.ACCESSORIESThese mics come with all the required cables – the USB mic has a 9 foot long cable attached, the CM-1000 mics have a 10 foot cable. If you need more cord, and / or are running these cables near “noisy” electrical equipment, I recommend shielded extension cables – they are a little more expensive but they help prevent your mics picking up electrical interference that reproduces as audible noise. Any cable running above false-ceiling tiles should be shielded to avoid picking up noise.To connect CM-1000’s look for 3.5mm Shielded AUX Extension Cable available on this site in a variety of lengths. I used 15 foot extension cables for both of the CM-1000 mics and didn’t notice any impact on audio quality.To connect CM-1000USB to computer, Shielded USB 3.0 Extension Cable. Up to approximately 6 feet. I used a 6.6 foot cord. USB cables have a maximum length that any USB cable should support; I believe the official spec is 3 meters or approx. 10 feet. High quality shielded cables may work over longer distances – I had a total of 15.6 feet total by adding a shielded extension cord. At some point the signal will degrade to the point where the mic may no longer work or work well. If you need to put the mic further away than 16 feet from your computer, you may need an Active USB Extension Cable also known as a USB Repeater cable. These are more expensive. I am repeating what I’ve read, I haven’t actually tried an active cable with the CM-1000USBOptionally – 3.5mm Jack Adapter – 90 Degree Angle 3 Pole 1/8” TRS 3.5mm Jack Male to Female Stereo Audio Adapter. This allows you to connect a cable coming from the ceiling to a CM-1000 without having a loop of cable sticking out from the side of the mic and then up to the ceiling. Not required, just neater.SOUND QUALITYI am not an audiophile but I found the CM-1000USB / CM-1000 produced excellent sound quality for a video conference solution. If you ARE an audiophile note that the frequency response (frequencies that the mics can reproduce) is 100Hz to 10,000KHz. High fidelity requires up to 20KHz. But human speech tops out at around 8,000KHz so these mics have more than enough range for the intended use.HANGING THE MICROPHONESI’d suggest trying whatever is easiest first. You can try more complicated options if the easy ones don’t get you the results you want.First, these mic’s are meant to sit on a conference table. They don’t include any hardware for mounting them from a ceiling; it’s up to you to find some creative solution. They aren’t particularly heavy and aside from anything else you do, they are physically attached to cords. I hung them upside down, not by the cord facing sideways.Hang them upside down. Imagine the mic sitting on a table and lines radiating out from the sides of the microphone in all directions – that’s the main pickup pattern – less so from directly above. If you hang them from the cord, half the mic would be pointed at the ceiling.The easiest option would be to stick the mics directly to the ceiling. I considered using 3M Command Strips or similar but I cannot vouch for that as an appropriate use of that product. Assuming you figure out a way to securely stick the mics to the ceiling, there are two potential downsides. First any vibrations from the ceiling may be picked up by the mic as noise. Second, direct ceiling mount places mics further from the people talking. You might need more mics and/or you might pick up more background noise.Suspending the mics below the ceiling brings them closer to the people speaking – closer is generally better for audio quality. If vibrations are a concern, you can suspend the microphones using flexible materials that will isolate the mics from vibrations.USB PORTS:I initially plugged the CM-1000USB (with an additional CM-1000 daisy chained to it) into a USB port on the front of my desktop PC at home to test – nothing microphones were not detected, did not work. Then I remembered. The USB ports on the front of my computer are really only designed to support flash drives/USB sticks – things that don’t require a lot of power. I’ve tried in the past to use those ports to charge my iPhone and I get an error message on my phone saying it cannot charge. I switched to a USB port on the back of the computer and mics were detected and worked right away. If in doubt about a USB port, try using it to charge a phone/tablet or similar. If you can charge a portable device like that, you should have enough power to run the CM-1000USB – but I make no guarantees 😉
Dan Halyburton –
Boundary Meeting Mics are Low Cost Solution for Board and Business Meetings.The mics have proven to be a good low cost solution for our condo board meetings. The USB mic does a good job for two or three people at a table. You buy the extension mics with the 3.5 mm jack to extend the coverage. These mics performance are highly impacted by room acoustics. They work best when the mics are about an arms length or slightly more from the person speaking. The USB mic powers the extension mics. This is not made clear in the product description and may resort in low ratings for the mics. Our board purchased the USB mic and three more for a conference table that seats 8 people. We are pleased with the results.
Brandon –
Okay, but there are much better optionsI bought several conference room mics and compared them, and I wasn’t impressed with this one. The audio is pretty noisy compared to the MXL.Here’s how various conference room mics stack up in my book:-
Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920
, 1 star. Decent video but the microphone is terrible. Wouldn’t recommend it to anyone!-
Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker II
, 2 stars. Great noise cancelling, but the audio is muffled and only good for 2-3 people in a room.-
Phoenix Condor Beamforming Array Microphone
, 2 stars. Audio is weak, tinny, and sounds like you’re talking to someone on an old cell phone. Pretty lame for a $1000+ microphone.-
Sound Tech CM-1000USB
, 2 stars. Pretty crappy audio, wish I would have kept the box so I could return it. Lots of ambient noise pick up compared to the MXL.-
Jabra SPEAK 510
, 2.5 stars. At just $100, this has better audio quality than the $1100 Phoenix Condor. The problem is that it only has one microphone, so compared to the MXL it sounds quiet, muffled and generally pretty bad. Still better than a few of the others listed here.-
Blue Microphones Snowball
, 2.5 stars. I’m not sure what all the hype is about. The MacBook Air’s microphone was far better than the audio from this thing. Returned it.-
ClearOne Chat 170
, 4 stars. This has pretty decent audio but compared to the MXL it sounds muffled and it chops in and out. The advantage is that since it’s also the speaker it has perfect feedback prevention, meaning the person speaking through the ClearOne doesn’t hear their own voice feeding back to them at all. I’d recommend this for 4-5 people in a conference room.-
Blue Microphones Yeti USB
, 4 stars. This is my second favorite compared to the MXL. Audio is pretty clear and it has decent range. The MXL still sounds better and has better full-room pick up though.-
MXL AC-404
, 5 stars. The clarity sensitivity of this microphone is far better than most, and the best micrpohone I’ve tried so far. This is, so far, the winner for our company conference rooms that hold 8-10 people.-
MXL AC-360-Z
, 5 stars. This is basically four AC-404’s put together into a single nice looking package optimized for Zoom Rooms. If you’re using Zoom Rooms and have a room where you need to pick up speakers from any direction this is a great microphone package!Let me know what you think. These were all compared by myself during company meetings. At each meeting I’d have someone at the office connect 2-3 microphones to our conference room PC and then switch between them during the meetings.
Jester –
A good omni boundary mic for the priceOverall this is a good quality mic for the price. I compared it to the similar MXL AC-404 USB, and there are pros and cons to each. Both had better sound than my Jabra Speak 410/510 USB speaker/mic, though neither has speaker or bluetooth functions. I would also check out the Samson GoMic, which (though not a boundary mic) is good sounding, very flexible, and less expensive.The MXL isn’t really omnidirectional; mine acts as a cardioid pattern mic, and I got good results orienting the mic this way. 90 degrees off axis was several dB down and sounded more distant, and 180 was even worse. In contrast, the CM-1000 is omni, and though it had a few dB more noise and didn’t sound as good as the MXL on axis, it was better off axis. Thus, in a room with only a couple of people or for more distant pickup the MXL wins, but for a small round conference table the SoundTech does.The SoundTech allows you to daisy chain additional mics for better pickup for larger tables or rooms; the MXL does not. However, adding a second mic increased room noise by 6dB. Though it definitely gave more uniform pickup, in my room (which is noisy due to old A/C system) the background noise made this setup unusable. In quieter rooms the multiple mics might be a good solution (others have said as much; check out their reviews), but I’d verify that it works in your space.
ElectronicCircuits –
Perfect for multiple people (We use for mixed virtual and live classes)This has been the answer we have been looking for. 1 x CM-1000USB and 5x CM-1000. We can hear people wherever they are in our classroom now. We use with Discord or Zoom and we finally are happy with the audio capture.IMPORTANT NOTE: To daisy chain the microphones, each jack on the CM-1000USB is for a different channel. On a windows computer you have to go in and change the capture to 2-Channel or only one of the 3.5mm jacks works.
Dessa Van Schuyver –
The mic itself seems to be good. The CM-1000 mics also work nicely on their …This is a mixed review actually. The mic itself seems to be good. The CM-1000 mics also work nicely on their own.However, I bought this for the ability to add mics and get two-track recordings.I bought the CM-1000 mics to daisy chain with the USB mic. The USB mic has two ports to create a two-track stereo recording.I have a dead port on the USB unit. Again, all the mics work fine on their own. I just have a problem with a dead port on the rear of the USB unit. I thought I had a bad unit so I bought a second USB mic and it has the exact same problem. Thought it might be a Windows 10 problem but I still have the dead port on my Windows 7 machine. I have e-mailed the company and left feedback. Hopefully, they have an answer or a unit that has both ports working.Updated! Support is great. Called me within minutes of my post and fixed my issue. A setting change was all I needed.Love this setup!
capngary –
Great SolutionWhen our club meetings had to go from face to face to Zoom, we needed a quality conference microphone to conduct our meetings. This microphone filled the need perfectly. Low background noice, sensitive enough for all in the room to be heard and super easy to set up and use.
Duke Hillard –
Vastly Improved Audio In Conference RoomWe use this microphone together with 2 Sound Tech CM-1000s. Our conference room is about 8 feet wide by 16 feet long. Before this microphone system, we had a webcam with integrated microphone at one end of the table and people in online meetings with us complained constantly about our poor audio quality. We looked at a number of expensive solutions then decided to give this system a try. I am glad that we did. With our 3 microphone combination (1 in the middle of the table and 1 on each end), everyone can be heard easily.On a side note, audio quality of the webcam was great when it was used people’s desks when sitting on top of their monitors. It did well within a limited range (say, 1 to 5 feet) but the conference room was outside the range that the webcam could handle.On another note, this microphone connects to our conference room PC via USB. The Sound Tech CM-1000 microphones daisy chain into each other and into this microphone.
veggieveggievegveg –
Great USB microphone!I am very impressed with this microphone. It’s not too big (maybe the size of a flat baseball). I like the round/curvy design. I use it with a USB 3.0 hub (I have a Surface Pro 4, so I have to use a hub in order to use multiple USB devices), and it worked great. I am not happy that the Surface doesn’t have a microphone jack, but after reading lots of reviews for USB microphones, I’m glad that I found a good USB microphone. The quality is fantastic. Very clear/crisp. And I think it was reasonably priced. (I was using a $250 3.5 stereo microphone that ran on a button battery with my previous computer, which was smaller/lighter, but I actually prefer this microphone!) Hopefully it will be just as awesome for years to come!
Marble68 –
Good clear quality in conference room and minimal background noise.Purchased this for a meeting where we have several people in a conference room and 1 person remotely join. We’ve tried a number of different solutions but our remote participant always struggled to hear, especially when conversations were occuring that had people talking over other people. Our meeting yesterday was completely different thanks to this mic, and our remote participant was able to hear everything. We had no echo, interference, or feedback problems, the sound was clear for him from everyone in the room, and it worked instantly with no problems setting it up. Highly recommend.