AKGPodcaster Essentials Kit

Short and to the Point Review:Devices do what the manufacturer says. Good value for the price especially if you get it on sale. I am pleased with my purchase.Long and Rambling Review:First off, I got my combo package as a two-for-one price. Individually the mic and headphones would be twice the price separately, so I saved about $150. If you are patient, you'll see this deal again. The box came unopened from overseas, and everything was packed well, no damage and both mike and headphones worked out of the box.I already had the Audio Technica M50x from the last Amazon sale to replace one of my 30-yo cans. It's a great headphone, well built, great sound. I wanted to replace the second 30-yo can and wanted the AKG version.The AKG K371 phones sound a bit better than the M50x but you can't go wrong with either of them. I listen to recorded vinyl at 192Khz/32-bit float. I have the 50th anniversary remaster of The Beatles Red/Blue vinyl along with the 50th anniversary Wings 'Band on The Run' 1/2 master for comparisons. (See my reviews on both). I can hear a bit more detail with the K371's but I'm probably splitting hairs. The K371's are lighter and a bit more fragile than the M50x. The K371's coiled cable is not as thick or as long as the M50x. If I had to wear either of these all day in the studio, I'd pick the K371 for comfort. For longevity I think the M50x wins but time will tell. Fortunately, I only use either of them for enjoying music at home. I am very satisfied with the K371 headphones.Now for the Lyra microphone. This is a hard one for me as I didn't purchase it for podcasting. I have 24+ mikes already and like anything else, each has its strengths and weaknesses. I was intrigued by the "four selectable microphone focus patterns." Lots of complaints about the construction of this mike. Not from me, mine is a massive, heavy mike and larger than I thought it would be, which I like. Having worked for 30+ years with all sorts of plastics and composite materials, I think it was constructed extremely well. Lots of metal also.I recorded one of my acoustic guitars on various settings playing/recording the same tune over and over on my music computer. It takes a bit of testing (what doesn't) to get the right sound without clipping. I then plugged the guitar directly into 192/32. The difference is pushing air at a mike as opposed to pushing electrons thru a bridge piezo mike is that air sounds better to me. Of course, I could have plugged another mike in to record the guitar but already knew what that sounded like. This mike is extremely sensitive and will pick up all background noise, including the hound in the other room. Reminds me of some 1960's era Akai mikes that I have. Sometimes you want that. For podcasting in a quiet room with other people present I think it's a winner and the setup is extremely easy - just plug it into your Windows computer or android phone. I can't vouch for the Mac experience. Frequency response appeared to be as advertised. I plan on using this outside playing guitar when I want natural sounds in the background.I plugged it into my Pixel Pro 7 and it recorded fine. Remember to unplug it on playback from your phone as your phone speakers will probably be cut off. If you have headphones plugged into the mike, you'll hear it.One of the kids has a small recording studio and has mikes placed around the room to pick up the band in addition to the individual miked instruments and voices. I think he has 24 channels active when desired. This Lyra mike might be another approach to pick up the band as a whole.Overall, purchasing these two devices separately for $125-$150 is in the same league as other headphones and mikes in this price range and ability. I paid $139 for the combo package last month and it's well worth it. If you need only one of these items, the individual price is reasonable. If you want the best price on the combo, stick it in your wish list and monitor the price. Prices can vary daily.Retired Military Aerospace and Industrial Manufacturing Engineer

This USB mic picks clean and clear, feels built very solid, several different recording patterns to choose from but the unique one would be the 4 directional recording with individual capsules good for podcasting or maybe a quartet. Vocals sound nice. The headset is impressive with quality drivers that are not overly large as to still allow use on lower ohm rated interfaces or sound chipsets. I have had 2 of these already and they sounds good as a monitor for Daws and I also have used them for pc gaming and they sound excellent. My last AKG headset like the one I bought here lasted years of heavy use. I highly recommend trying this headset and Mic

All features work as advertised making this truly the most diverse and easiest to use mic out there. I use it with my iPad Pro directly into GarageBand via the USB-C port and it works great. Plus the sound quality is fantastic and very customizable due to all the control knobs.Extra note for people planning to use it with iPad: One weird thing I have experienced is that the “volume” knob doesn’t play nicely with iOS (iPad). The iPad doesn’t recognize the microphone as a proper headphone amp/interface and doesn’t really know what to make of it. You can adjust the volume with the knob, but if you touch the volume on the iPad directly, it will override the volume to match what you set on the iPad. It still works, but I’ve already almost deafened myself by dialing in the volume on the mic, and then adjusting the volume via iPad only to have it jump up a few notches too loud. Typically when iPad has a headphone amp/audio interface connected, it disables volume control on the iPad and relies solely on the interface for adjustments. That’s not the case here, so the volume controls compete with each other and do not stay in sync. My suggestion would be to always adjust volume directly from the iPad and forget about the onboard volume knob when monitoring with headphones.Overall, everything works great and sounds great and there’s literally nothing out there with similar features. Very unique!

The AKG Lyra provides a good platform to get into recording. The feature combination I value most in its price-range and compatibility is that it has adjustable gain _and_ USB compatibility. I can record from my Android phone and my iPad anywhere, turning down the gain to deaden background noise. I’ve not noticed any hum or distortion that plague many USB mics. The stand is stable and there’s a socket so you can mount the mic to a mic boom.The USB interface can be a little clumsy in that the mic usually hijacks sound output, so you’ll want to use corded/stereo-mini headphones for playback, setup, and monitoring. The USB and headphone jacks are placed between the mic and its stand swivel restricting flexibility of the mount.The mic seems bulky to travel with, so I wish I could find a case to keep it travel-scar free.