Maono DM30 Gaming Microphone Review – Seriously Amazing Value for Money

Tech Specs

The Maono DM30 gaming microphone is a Cardioid microphone, which means that, for the best use, you’re really going to be talking at the front of the microphone.

You don’t want to have it to the side or try and speak to the back, you need to only come in from the front basically facing the volume knob control on the front.

It has a full array of RGB lights in the bottom of the microphone which add a really nice flare to it. And there is a USB port at the bottom of the microphone where the USBC cable charges.

Also in the bottom is a 3.5mm jack plug for headphone monitoring. The unit comes with a solid steel base and the whole unit itself is a steel exterior.

And you can also mount it using the same thread for the base to a boom mic screw thread. (see video and HD photos above for more).

Looks and build quality

This thing looks awesome on your desk.

It’s such a nice form factor. The finish on it is so nice and it’s not too large and bulky for what you need.

If you are going to be gaming with it, there is a gain option on it to ensure that you can put it on your desk wherever you want it, but it just looks really nice.

The LED lighting around the bottom of the microphone can be altered in a few different ways. You can have it rotating constantly through colors, or you can prefix it to eight other set colors as you would like e.g. red, green, or blue.

And if you don’t want it on at all, then you can also select to have the LED light off.

As a USB condenser mic, it’s pretty much plugged into my USB hub all the time, and I quite like the red LED color on permanently. That is my go-to color. Nothing sinister, I just find it calming…

The base plate on this thing is nice and solid and doesn’t move around at all. 

I was really impressed that they managed to pack such a heavy base into the box, as typically, companies will try to avoid such heavy parts as it adds so much more to their shipping costs.

So for a budget USB microphone, to have such a good quality stand and build quality overall has really impressed me.

Features

On the front of the microphone, there is a volume dial, which is really a kind of three-way switch dial.

You can use it to:

1. turn the volume up and down
2. you can also use it to adjust the gain up and down
3. it also acts as a mute button.

So if you depress it, then it mutes and if you press it again and it unmutes.

Under this button, there is an RGB light, which is green and red. This changes to green when you’re unmuted and red when you’re muted.

I absolutely love this visual cue that allows me to see whether I’m live or not with the microphone. 

And the depressing of the button on the front is such a nice, fast tactile way to mute your microphone. Removes the uncertainty of software alternatives.

It’s just easy to find the button. You’re not feeling along a cable or looking for a software button somewhere.

Definitely executed that one well. Well done Maono.

Underneath the USB-C charging cable, there is a button that you can depress to change the different color states on the microphone. 

Each press cycles through the full range of color options or power off that you would like.

Also underneath, which, surprisingly, at this price point is a headphone jack, so that you can do live headphone monitoring at the same time as you’re recording. 

This is obviously great for gamers in particular, and if you wanted to even use this for podcasts or similar, this is a real feature value add at this price point.

Software

Maono has come out with the Maono Link software to help you manage the microphone settings from within your computer.

There seems to be a download for every operating system, and I use the Mac version for my MacBook Pro.

Once you’re inside the software as the screenshots will show, you can do things like alter the levels, play with some EQ presets, and advanced features like compressor and limiter. 

You can also control the RGB lights from within the software app.

Again, considering the price of this thing to come with all of these features and included software to help you select the right audio signature, gain, compression, and limiter, is absolutely astonishing.

Frequency Response

The microphone itself has a frequency response of 20 Hz to 20 kHz and is a USB 2.0.

More on the Three-in-one knob control

To manage the settings from the front knob control and not the software, if you plug in the mic for the first time this is how it works.

If you rotate it, it will increase and reduce the mic gain. So mic gain really just means that you could sit a little bit further back from the microphone and the microphone will become a lot more sensitive and throw its field wider so that it tries to pick up more noise around the room.

So, if you can’t sit too close to the microphone, then this will help you get good results from a distance.

It will make it a little bit more sensitive to other noises in the room. So have a play with that.

If you long press that button again, then the volume control kicks in. 

And the dial that once controlled the headphone gain, the mic gain, now controls the headphone volume.

To be honest, I’d rather use the software to see exactly what the Gain and Volume levels are rather than trust the dial.

How does it sound? 

Well, I’ll let you decide that by including a few sound samples below.

And you can also watch the video above, which includes me talking directly into the mic and doing a video showing the software.

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I think it’s great. It’s definitely quite bright, but you do have some control over that.

And you could obviously leverage the compressor and limiter if it’s all getting a little bit too exciting in your use of the microphone.

Shouting out in the middle of a game of Fortnite, or getting all excited on a podcast might mean that you do want to play with those advanced features.

For doing calls, videos, general gaming, and a little bit of music, I actually found the microphone to pick up a lot of detail vocally and musically which I also was really impressed with.

Let me know what you think of the audio quality and vote on these clips.

Conclusion

Overall, the Maono DM30 budget microphone has impressed me and I’m more than happy to have this have a permanent place on my desk.

What they fit into this unit at this price especially this build quality, was not what I expected at all.

I definitely look forward to reviewing their PD400x model which will allow me to do a little bit more music testing and podcasting testing as well.

I have to give this thing a five out of five stars which is rare for me, but I really can’t fault the thing. 

Well done, Maono, for the Maono DM30 Gaming microphone.

It’s a super little unit.

This post was last updated on 2023-03-20 / Some images from Amazon Product API & some links may be affiliate links which may earn us a commission from purchases.