If you're looking for a microphone that compliments your gaming aesthetic, then Maono could have you covered with their DM30 cardioid microphone.
The DM30 is Maono's first foray into the world of gaming peripherals and it comes sporting a modest yet pleasing RGB trim around the bottom of the microphone.
Design wise the DM30 looks like a variant of the Maono AU-PM320S, but feels much less of an AT2020 clone - with a much more refined and sleek look, along with face controls for mute, microphone gain, and headphone volume.
The microphone and grille is made of metal, whilst the top and the dial are both plastic. The metal adds to the premium feel as well as making it more robust and weighty at 1.61 pounds - the DM30 is particularly hefty with the base stand, so if you're an over-reactive gamer with a tendency to hit things, you should be safe with the DM30.
The stand itself reduces vibrations and structure-borne sounds, and there is a high-density polyurethane pad between the arm and the microphone unit.
I did find the stand to be a little too short - for the review I used a HAUEA Suspension Boom arm to make it more comfortable for myself, but depending on your desk setup, you should be able to make the stand work for you too.
However, due to its structure, it doesn’t support a shock mount and up to now Maono does not offer one that does support it at the moment.
The Maono DM30 condenser microphone also comes in a variety of colours - purple, black, white, and pink - so whatever your desk theme is, there's a good selection of colours to choose from.
At £59.99 Maono are targeting an aggressive market, particularly gamers who want a plug and play microphone, without the need of additional equipment.
Connectivity wise there are 2 ports on the very bottom, a USB Type-C port and a 3.5mm headphones port that is used for studio monitoring. Opposite the ports you'll find a little button that controls the RGB lights, giving your 9 different modes.
Sound wise, the DM30 performs very well for a £59.99 microphone, and whilst I wouldn't recommend it for singing vocals, as a means to communicate on Discord and the like it's a great sounding microphone. You could comfortably record a podcast with it, but I would highly suggest you use the included Maono Link software to touch up the audio to your liking.
As it is a cardioid condenser microphone, you will notice it picking up any noisy PC fans and such, but for the most part, in a good environment you shouldn't have too many issues getting a nice clean sound.
The DM30 has a sampling rate of 24 bit/48 kHz and whilst it sounds pretty decent for a mic in this price range, it does feel lacking in the sub-800Hz frequencies, but overall it's a solid sounding microphone, albeit with a little help from the included Maono Link software.
Speaking of, the Maono Link is a free software download that's available for the DM30 and PD400x, DM70 and DM90 microphones. This software allows you to control certain aspects of the DM30:
Equalizer
Limiter
Compressor
Microphone monitoring
Headphone volume
Microphone gain
4 mic tone options(Legacy, Deep, Natural, Bright)
RGB lighting customization
OVERALL
The DM30 is another great addition to the Maono family, and whilst it's not the strongest sounding microphone they've made, for the price it's a great little feature packed unit and the Maono Link software shows the company future proofing for exciting prospects in the future.