Microphones! Want to share your beautiful rendition of Unchained Melody? Trying to start a podcast where you talk about eSports? Do you need to scream and shout and tell the world about how an unnamed election was completely wrong and fraudulent? Or are you wanting to just chat with your mates and berate each other when you make misplays (if you’re like me, you misplay a lot!) while playing games? There’s a microphone out there to suit the needs of everybody. From headsets with built in microphones to boom mics, the variety is crazy.
Today though, I’m going to be taking a look at a microphone from the guys over at Genesis, the Radium 300 XLR.
To begin with we’ll get straight into WHAT it is. The Radium 300 XLR is a Dynamic, Cardioid microphone which means the microphone is unidirectional, so you need it facing you for the best performance, this is because the pattern of sensitivity is effectively heart-shaped. It’s wired, specifically, the mic itself has an XLR connector, the included cable is an XLR to Mini Jack, but you could absolutely replace that with an XLR to XLR if you wanted to run it through a mixer and get a little more accurate control of your levels perhaps.
Now, the good old meat and potatoes, the stats. The mic itself is metal construction weighing 340 grams, it’s got 2200Ohm impedance and a frequency response between 30-16000Hz and sensitivity of -38dB which sets it up quite nicely to be pretty competitive with plenty of other units on the market. Some of which are priced much higher than this, but we’ll get to the money shortly!
So what do you get in the Radium 300 XLR box? Obviously, the microphone itself, silly, the included cable is a 2.5m XLR to Mini Jack, which I am currently running through my EPOS GSX 300 USB Sound Card (my review of this is HERE!) which is going to add to the already incredible sound but we’ll get to that in a moment.
The Radium 300 XLR includes a mic sock AND a pop filter to help you keep out those PLOSIVES like when you’re saying peter parker picked a peck of pickled peppers, yeah it’s impressive but all those P’s fire short burst of air directly into your microphone, the fact it comes with these things is really nice, you’re basically set up right out the box. It also comes with a pretty good quality suspension mount to help avoid excess noise through knocks and bumps and a desk arm, quite a lot of kit to get you ready to go right? This is all great, but it’s all for nothing if it doesn’t sound good!
Below you’ll find a brief test of the Radium 300 XLR itself, as I said previously I do have this running through my USB sound card so that will help the product but honestly, I think this thing sounds incredible. The sound is full yet crisp, it gives my voice a nice oomph and I’ve had nothing but compliments from friends when chatting playing games and that’s after I’ve used a Blue Yeti for the last few years!
My favourite thing about the Radium 300 XLR is that, given the fact I use a Mechanical Keyboard, a Logitech G910 in particular with Romer G switches, although I usually use push to talk, if I’m gaming with a controller as I do in Rocket League, for example, I turn on voice activation. Now if for any reason I’m typing, even with a noise gate on and my gain turned all the way down, it sounded to my friends (I’m a fast, heavy typer) like I was basically slapping my microphone with my keyboard when I was using my Blue Yeti.
However, with this thing, even with the gain turned all the way up and my noise gate exactly the same as it was, microphone pointed at me also, my friends only hear subtle tapping instead, I know, it’s obnoxious, I’m a demon. Let it all out!
I’m genuinely impressed with the performance of the Radium 300 XLR, is it worth it? Time for the price! I’ve found this microphone available for a cool €67.19 HERE but again my only issue finding this, as with their Helium 610 Bluetooth speakers which I reviewed (HERE!) is that I currently can’t find a UK based supplier! As such it seems everything is shipped over from mainland Europe, this isn’t necessarily a problem but given the current climate due to covid, you may find it could take a while to be shipped across as they’re taking extra precautions with stuff like this.
BUT! Even so, at €67.19, given the way this thing sounds and everything you get IN THE BOX AS STANDARD? I’d say the Radium 300 XLR is a damn steal and, look, Genesis, I need to level with you here guys, you’re robbing yourselves blind with this product. Given the fact I’ve been using a mic that still retails at over £100 that I picked up in a Black Friday sale for the last couple years, this thing goes toe to toe with it and in some scenarios beats it.
Every mic is made different, they all have their strengths and weaknesses and depending on your actual needs you may not want something like this of course, but for me and my needs, the Radium 300 XLR is awesome. Kudos.
Radium 300 XLR overall thoughts
I’m honestly gonna have to give the Radium 300 XLR a (very rare from me) 10/10, I really am super impressed with this product and it seems everyone who has to put up with me online is too. So that’s it! There you have it, that’s my review of an absolute gem of a microphone. It seems like Genesis are knocking out very competitive products at SOLID price points, they have a huge range of gear and given my experiences with their stuff so far I’d definitely recommend you all take a look at their site. Show them some love folks!
If you want to check out some of my other brief microphone tests, I’ve got a playlist HERE that I’ll be updating as and when I review more microphones, at the moment it features 2 microphones I have reviewed, 1 gaming headset mic and my Blue Yeti, those last 2 are just as points of comparison. If you’d like me to elaborate a little more on those tests and may be read out a paragraph or something instead, let me know, all feedback is welcome and if you want to just chat garbage with me about games, tech or sports, feel free to give me a follow on Twitter @Stubat_ I look forward to hearing from you folks!
If you’re wanting a little more info on Genesis’ Radium 300 XLR microphones, or any of their other products, head to their official site HERE. And if you’d like to check out more of our hardware reviews, you can do so by clicking HERE.