The team at Earthworks reached out to me over the Christmas holidays and offered to send me their latest flagship broadcast mic, the ETHOS. Since then I’ve put it to work as a streaming mic for Twitch sessions, voice-overs in video editing, and in use for video calls.

When I first took Earthworks’ new Icon Pro microphone out of its box, I was immediately impressed. Its stainless‑steel body and drilled metal grille are classy, and with a hefty weight of 700g it feels like a mic that’s built to last. Frankly, it looks stunning, and with video being an ever more important part of home‑produced content, aesthetics matter. The ‘energy drink’ look of some budget gaming and streaming equipment has become something of a cliché, and while it might hold appeal to younger Twitch viewers, content creators with a more mature audience will probably want to be seen using serious‑looking kit. They certainly won’t be disappointed with the Icon Pro.The SV33 certainly looks the business and feels both solid and tough, but also delivers a very classy and modern sound full of detail and clarity, without being edgy or harsh at all. These qualities arguably justify the price alone, but the tightly controlled polar pattern at low frequencies is also a great bonus, especially if recording vocals with the band! Putting my old and dusty broadcaster’s cap on, the SV33’s attributes would also make a really great presenter’s mic in a broadcast studio. However, he was also a pioneering researcher into the time-domain acuity of human hearing, arguing passionately in AES papers and conferences about the significance of the ear’s ability to resolve timing information down to 5 microseconds — often against great scepticism. For a singer going to all kinds of venues, having your own phantom power supply and a high-quality lead that you trust is a good idea if you're gonna use a condenser mic imo. Ideally you should trust the venue to have good equipment, but I live in the UK...it's not correct to compare a powered speaker without having plugged anything in to a fully rigged system... As well as setting Earthworks apart from the majority of microphone manufacturers, this fast transient response and extended HF sensitivity also sets the Icon Pro apart from some of the more established voice‑over and radio mics. Probably the two biggest names in the spoken‑word microphone market are the Shure SM7B and Electro‑Voice RE20, both of which are moving‑coil designs. Relative to the Earthworks, with its lightweight, small‑diaphragm (12mm), pre‑polarised capsule, the Shure and E‑V diaphragms are massive, which means they’re slower to move and will have an inherently curtailed transient and HF response. On the one hand, this is likely to result in less‑than‑faithful capture of sibilants and fricatives; on the other, they’ll be much less susceptible to undesired HF sounds like paper shuffles. I'm gonna be sincere: I have a few of those vocal mics: DPA 2028, Neumann KMS105 and Sennheiser MD441. I don't have a "GREAT" ear to hear all the differences and the knowledge to know which of them would be "the one" for my vocals.

The sound I got was very well balanced, with a pleasing combination of low‑end weight and high‑end detail. Despite the highs being very much ‘there’, though, they are far from overly present, so unlike some cheaper small‑diaphragm capacitor mics, the sense of detail wasn’t accompanied by any brashness or fizz — the sound was simply very lifelike and ‘focussed’, for want of a better word. And though it is a fairly bright mic, sibilance was never a problem. Popping only really became an issue when I used the mic closer than 2‑3 inches, at which point both plosives and breath noises started to make themselves known. The sound I got was very well balanced, with a pleasing combination of low‑end weight and high‑end detail. I've been singing for 35 years and always used Shure mics. The Beta 58 has been my go to for many years and it is a fine mic but, my singing partner has been using a hand held condenser (Neumann KMS 105) and I thought I should take the plunge as her sound quality is so good on stage. I looked into that mic but discovered the Earthworks option and did some research. Cardioid polar pattern with a consistent frequency response all the way out to 90 degrees off-axis will deliver the same quality on or off axis. Gentle reminder not to have your power amps/active speakers turned on when you turn on your mixer, you're gonna get thunderous popping) Here at Gearnews we get sent a lot of press releases and see a lot of music gear; it’s therefore massively refreshing when we see a new and unique product. Last year Earthworks released its Icon and Icon Pro Broadcast mics which couples a beautiful mid-century aesthetic with premium audio performance. I liked them so much that they made my list of the best live gear of 2021.Earthworks have long been renowned for their top-tier instrument mics, but their latest offering is aimed at capturing vocals.

Earthworks make several different sizes of small‑diaphragm electret capsule, and the ETHOS uses their 14mm design, configured here to deliver a supercardioid polar pattern. It can operate on phantom power from 24 to 48 Volts and, like other Earthworks mics, draws the maximum permitted 10mA from the supply. Sensitivity is a comfortable 20mV/Pa, self‑noise is specified at 16dBA, and the ETHOS is said to be able to cope with sound pressure levels up to 145dB, though the level of distortion this represents isn’t stated. The balanced, transformerless output has a nominal impedance of 65Ω. So, is the ETHOS any good? And should it join your shortlist of broadcast mics? Read on to find out. Sexy Styling – Stunning Specs! Earthworks microphones have always embodied a very distinctive ethos, aiming to capture sound with the highest possible fidelity across the widest possible frequency range, and laying particular emphasis on the accurate representation of transients. It's a philosophy which has won their omnidirectional studio mics many admirers, especially among engineers who favour a natural drum sound, and it's one that Earthworks have carried through into their range of vocal mics. Some microphones, especially budget condenser mics, can end up “fatiguing” to listen to for long periods of time. This can be a factor of overly-hyped EQ, low-level distortion, or even a combination of the two. In Use for Podcasting and Voiceovers

For me, the most obvious practical aspect of this polar-pattern consistency is the impressive level of low-frequency rejection of off-axis signals, and this is substantially better than most large-diaphragm mics. This characteristic obviously makes a very big difference when recording vocals in the studio along with other performing instruments, but it can also be highly beneficial in vocal booths too, especially where the acoustic treatment is not all it should be to control the low end properly — which is commonly the case in small project studios. In Use Tight cardioid polar pattern with a consistent frequency response all the way out to 90 degrees means the SR314 delivers the same quality of sound even when the singer moves off-center. Large/quiet venues: Sound quality critical, polar pattern, handling noise and noise floor important For that kind of sound, the Icon Pro works extremely well. Intelligibility is excellent, the sound is detailed without being harsh, and the fact that it works well at a slightly greater distance than typical radio mics arguably makes it more useful for video work. The fact that it looks gorgeous also doesn’t hurt!

Earthworks’ SR Series of microphones is intended for sound reinforcement applications, though the subject of this review—the SR314 handheld vocal condenser mic—is equally suited for use on stage or in the studio.Consistent low frequency response across a wide range of distances, providing articulate detailed bass up close while not getting thin with distance.