EPOS B20 streaming microphone | PC Gamer - bennettwasat1989

Our Finding of fact

The Heroic poem B20 is a great first stab at a moving mike and is one of the most graceful desk microphones some that with great care happens to sound great, with the doubled pick-me-up patterns encouraging plenty of use cases too.

For

Built-in controls and sidetone
Excellent sound KO'd of the box
Multiple pickup truck patterns

Against

Some background knowledge hiss
Place upright transmits vibration noise

PC Gamer Verdict

The Epic B20 is a great first dig at a streaming mike and is one of the all but elegant desk microphones around that with great care happens to sound great, with the multiple pickup patterns supporting plenty of use up cases too.

Pros

+
Built-in controls and sidetone
+
Excellent effectual out of the box
+
Multiple pickup patterns

Cons

-
Some scop hiss
-
Stand transmits vibration noise

The Epic B20 streaming microphone sets out to give a statement from the off. It says, look at us, we're totally grown up and mean commercial enterprise. From the elegant black packaging that exudes sophistication, the $199 (£179) B20 immediately sets itself divided in the looks department. Information technology continues with the gunmetal colorway that we've seen with the excellent GTW 270 tune earbuds and Heroic poem H3 pumped up play headset. The familial relation is apparent and a clearheaded signalise Epic is doing away with the echt Sennheiser gamey flavor. The company has grown up and I like it.

The EPOS B20 is a USB desk mike aimed at streamers and podcasters, only does it do adequate to pee-pee it into our best microphone guide? It certainly looks good on wallpaper: It aims to offer broadcast quality at 24-spot via a plug-n-play USB connection, sidetone built into the mic, and four tone arm patterns for unusual utilisation cases. It comes with a desk tolerate in the box only if you want to use a boom arm, you tin can thanks to a 3/8-inch thread. And if you are serious about your audio, then this is the right smart to go since the B20 picks up vibrations through the stand.

Going back to the design of the B20 simmpleness and elegance is the name of the game. It's a tall, pitch-black, metallic cylinder with the peak third a mesh for pickup and controls for volume and mute on the front face off. An LED indicator glows white when the mic is engaged and red when quiet. This too helps you know which side is meant to face you. Around the back are two dials for ever-changing pickup patterns and noise gain. Underneath the microphone is a USB-C port and a 3.5 mm audio Jack which allow you to ride herd on your mic sound through your headphones.

Consecutive come out of the closet of the box, the microphone sounds wonderful. It picks high my vocalisation very clearly with nary distortion, compression, or tinniness and is a huge step out up from some gaming headset mic. You can tune up the gain, sidetone volume, and pickup patterns with the onboard dials merely if you really want to get the about out of the mic, then you need to use the Epic poem Gaming retinue software.

EPOS B20 Specs

Technology: Condenser Mike
Pick-up patterns: Cardioid, Bidirectional, Spatial relation, Stereo
Freq. response: 50–20,000 Hz
Sample rate: 48 kHz
Bit depth: 24-bit
Sensitiveness: -37 dBV/PA
Connectivity: USB Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack
Compatibility: Microcomputer, Mac, PlayStation 4

The software package gives you a riches of controls, everything from gain to noise cancellation to sidetone. I find the gaming suite package to Be one of the simplest and most visually pleasing experiences. Everything is understandably labeled and the large EQ graph lets you easily ride herd on your changes in real-time. You lavatory also record short snippets to see how all your changes affect the concluding sound output.

But perhaps the biggest company trick of the B20 is the multiple pick-up patterns which you stern select using the dial on the back of the microphone OR the gaming suite. There are four properly speaking; Cardioid, Two-way, Stereo, and Omnidirectional pickup. Nearly multitude will represent using the cardioid shape which is the best for a singular person speaking straight to the mike. However, in unusual instances, say you're running a podcast with a guest, you'd utilization either the bidirectional or the Spatial relation pattern to cop septuple voices or so the microphone.

The microphone sounds uppercase in most cases but is sensitive to background noise. Despite my hours of playing with the settings, I couldn't really get over eliminate the subtle background hiss. General, it doesn't detract from the great sound reproduction of the microphone and I'm sure most multitude will find it more than satisfactory. However, if you're transcription line audio for videos or voice playing, I'd make destined to eliminate any close sound.

Unmatched interesting fallout of being able to plug your headphones into the B20 is access to EPOS fantabulous EQ and virtual surround sound. I noticed a marked improvement in the warmth and sea bass when driving my headphones through the mic. You will have to set the B20 as your default audio device in Windows to go this to wreak though. And of course, you get mic monitoring excessively, meaning you backside hear your own voice through the microphone.

Information technology's great that the monitoring is shapely into the microphone so even when connected to say a MacBook or PlayStation which don't induce the EPOS software, you assume't lose out on core functionality.

Image 1 of 4

Image 2 of 4

Effigy 3 of 4

Image 4 of 4

At $199, the B20 is not a cheap microphone and that cost puts it among the big boys like the Cheerless Abominable snowman X, Razer Seiren X, and our loved mic, the Shure MV7 Podcast. Even so, for the company's first desk mike, I'm very pleased with this first iteration. The B20 looks great, sounds great and the Epic poem gambling suite really gives you the control you deman. Whether you usage it for Zoom calls or Twitch streams or your garage podcast, the B20 delivers with style and assort that makes information technology a joy to comprise in some desk setup. If EPOS can separate the background hiss, it's going to be on to a winner here.

Epic B20 streaming mike

The EPOS B20 is a great first stab at a flowing microphone and is one of the most elegant desk microphones some that just so happens to sound great, with the multiple tone arm patterns supporting mess of use cases too.

Kizzy is the sodding oddbal, with non-white turtleneck design sensibilities, always on the hunt for the latest, greatest and sexiest tech. He's played Doom on the OG Pentium and still remembers how to hack a dial-a-phone. After quartet decades screwball about technical school, he's literally just getting started. Information technology's the long time of the, geek, sister!