Performance
Because I’m not a big fan of having to run software when I don’t need it I do like that the PD200X has a few of lots functions tied in with the volume control on the microphone. You can switch between being able to control the volume of the microphone or the headphone output on the bottom of the microphone. Green is for the microphone and blue is for the headphone and as you turn either one down the brightness goes down, it also will flash once you hit full volume. Then pressing the mute button which is easy to get to will turn that to red to let you know the microphone is muted.
XLR users may never need to use the software, but if you are using the PD200X and want to get into a few other controls you will need to download and install the Maono software. The installation is easy and once installed it picked up the PD200X on the home screen and shows a picture of it. It looks like if you have multiple Maono devices it will support those. The settings gear on the home page opens up a page that shows the software version and lets you change the language and check for updates. Then once you click on the microphone it opens up a single page that controls everything. It is closer to a half page because this is split in half with standard mode and advanced mode. Standard has the mute button and a noise meter to show you what the microphone is picking up. Below that you have the microphone gain adjustment and headphone volume adjustment as well as an on and off for the microphone monitoring. This isn’t on by default, you have to turn it on. Otherwise, the headphone jack works as a speaker output for your PC. Below that you also have a tone setting with Deep, Original, and Natural settings along with legacy to the side. Below that you have the RGB controls which is a brightness adjustment and color selection. You can pick from 8 colors including white and at the end a rainbow effect. Then up top, you can switch to advanced mode and it will switch to the right side. You still have the RGB controls and the mute, gain, and headphone volume are all still there. But the EQ now shows you line drawings to give you an idea of what they do. You also have a microphone limiter and compressor down at the bottom and these are worth using the software in my opinion if you are loud. A compressor has a low ratio that turns down SOME of the volume when it goes above the threshold. A limiter has a huge ratio that turns down ALL of the volume that goes above the threshold. Both combined can help keep things under control and help avoid upsetting people who listen to you.
The video below has audio recordings from the PD200X along with testing what kind of keyboard and mouse sounds it picked up. I also have comparison audio from a wide variety of past microphones that we have tested. The PD200X was on the provided arm and around a foot and a half from my face, 19 inches from my keyboard, and 27 inches from my mouse for those tests. I should also point out that I had the volume set to 100%. I found that the PD200X does have a bit of a background static when set to full volume like this. Turning it down slightly would be ideal if you were to pick it up, that would help cut out that static. You can use the microphone a lot closer if needed and being a dynamic microphone it handles it well. I set it to the distance that I felt comfortable that didn’t have it up in my face. For software settings it was set to the original EQ setting, I was impressed just how much the Deep EQ setting helped on the low end and having the software have the limiter and compressor for anyone who is loud and also keeps the microphone up at their mouth is going to need to take advantage of those. It did pick up my keyboard and mouse, especially at full volume those are going to be hard to cut out without a more directional microphone. But we do those tests so you know what to expect, especially if you plan on using it when gaming.
I did also check out the RGB lighting ring around the PD200X although I don’t consider it to be a big selling point for me. You can set it to static colors and I was happy to see orange as an option because that does get missed sometimes. Then they have rainbow mode where it rotates through the colors. That is the only mode that takes advantage of the individual controllable LEDs and that is an area where on the software side they could improve. Being able to set every other LED to a color for a nice effect or having an LED not light up and rotate around could be simple but nice options. My camera doesn’t fully pick up on the vibrance, but the lighting does look good and matches the color better than shown in the pictures.
