Designed for streamers, podcasters, and musicians, the Shure MV7+ is a professional-grade microphone featuring an LED touch panel and voice isolation technology.
The MV7+ features a digital pop stop to preserve the warmth of your voice without hiss or explosive harshness. It also has a virtual denoiser that minimizes ambient sounds, voice isolation technology, an auto-level mode, and a USB-C connector so you can plug it directly into your laptop. So it might be one of the best best usb microphonesAlso.
I've been hosting an online radio show and podcast for three years, so I was excited to dust off my DJ skills and jump into the MV7+ to see if it's one of the best microphones for podcastingFind out what I thought of my Shure MV7+ podcast microphone review and whether it belongs on our list of best mics.
Shure MV7+ Podcast Microphone Review: Cheat Sheet
- What is this? A premium unidirectional microphone designed for podcasters, streamers, and musicians
- How much does it cost? $279 / £269
- What do we like? LED touch panel, sound clarity and instant noise reduction
- What don't we like? At $279, it's significantly more expensive than its competitors.
Shure MV7+ Podcast Microphone Review: Technical Specifications
| Price | $279/£269 |
| Connectivity | USB-C, XLR |
| Audio sensitivity | 40 dB |
| Polar diagram | One-way |
| Weight | 1.92 pounds |
| Dimensions | 15.9 x 7.8 x 7.7 inches |
| Colors | Black |
Shure MV7+ Podcast Microphone Review: Price and Availability
The MV7+ Professional is offered at a professional price: it is $279 on Amazon and Shure's website, and unfortunately it doesn't come with a boom arm or desk stand. The MV7+ with a desk stand will set you back $299/£289 and the mic plus boom arm is priced at $339/£349.
The MV7+ is priced similarly to the top of the range Yeti Studio mic ($299) but more expensive than our favorite mic, the Blue Yeti ($129) and our favorite USB mic, the Rode PodMic ($99).
Shure MV7+ Podcast Microphone Review: Design and Controls
The MV7+ looks like a standard mic, but with a bit of pizzazz. You can mute and unmute the mic using the color-changing touch LED panel, which can be customized to match the lighting on your PC setup, or to differentiate between host and guest mics. I kept mine as the default green for the first part of testing, then switched to Shure’s “Fruity” preset.
This isn't the only mic to have RGB LEDs – you can find them on the HyperX QuadCast S ($159) and the Blue Yeti X ($169). But it's the only mic I've seen with an LED touchpad that can check gain, levels, and mute and unmute the mic.
Since this is a plug-and-play mic, setting up the MV7+ is as simple as connecting it to your laptop or recording device using the USB-C or XLR cable. If you have a headset with a 3.5mm jack, you can plug it directly into the mic to monitor your voice while recording or streaming. All customization controls are available through Shure’s Motiv app, which you’ll learn about later in this review.
Shure MV7+ Podcast Microphone Review: Features and Connectivity
The MV7+ is perhaps the simplest mic I've ever used. Since it's a USB-C connection, you plug one end into the back of the mic, the other into your laptop, and you're good to go.
I opened Audacity — my favorite free audio production app — calibrated my input and output and started recording. It's virtually foolproof.
The MV7+ can also connect via XLR, which offers higher fidelity than USB-C, but the difference shouldn't be noticeable to most human ears. Since I don't have an XLR adapter for my M2 MacBook Air, I simply tested the MV7+ using USB-C.
If you are a streamer, MV7+ fits perfectly with Open Broadcaster Software. OBS automatically registered the MV7+ and if I had been recording or streaming, the connection would have been instant.
Shure MV7+ Podcast Microphone Review: Audio Quality
In my radio past I used the $399 Shure S7MB for three years, so I was curious to see if the MV7+ would be a cheaper rival.
The MV7+ mic is unidirectional (cardioid) and does a better job of minimizing ambient noise than an omnidirectional mic. With the Blue Yeti, you can select from cardioid to omnidirectional, bidirectional, or stereo patterns depending on your immediate needs. Unfortunately, the MV7+ is only unidirectional.
However, the unidirectional pattern means the MV7+ is extremely effective at picking up just your voice, perfect for podcasting, singing or streaming.
To test the microphone's pop-proof, noise-canceling, and vocal-tone settings, I read a few tongue twisters with different settings enabled. The mic sounds deep and clear, and its unidirectional pattern made my voice the center of attention. Real-time digital noise-canceling technology means the mic picks up less ambient noise than other mics, like the JLAB Conference ($99), which we found picks up background noise, even though it's almost $200 cheaper.
To test the denoiser, I played some “coffee shop conversation” type white noise in the background while I read tongue twisters. My recording was clear and crisp, but I could still hear a little background noise during my breaths or moments of silence. Overall, I was really impressed with the denoiser, especially since I recorded the same speech without the denoiser, and the coffee shop noise was much more apparent.
While the denoiser is great, I think the digital pop filter isn't as effective as it could be. When I said “digital pop filter” in the recording, you can hear the mic popping a bit during explosive sounds. You may want to get a physical pop filter if this is a major concern for you.
To test the “S” hisses, I turned on the noise reduction and popper blocking settings and made sure my recording room was as quiet as possible. I read the tongue twister “She sells seashells by the sea” to really put the MV7+ through its paces.
I was really impressed with how the “S” sound came out of the mic. There was minimal hiss, no pinching in my ears, and the words were clear and understandable.
As you'd expect from a $279 microphone, the MV7+ is incredible at minimizing ambient noise, plosives, and fricative sibilances, while still maintaining the natural cadence and depth of human voices. My voice was clear, rich, and my attempts at jokes came through through the mic.
Shure MV7+ podcast microphone test: application
The MV7+ is best when used with the new Shure Mix of patterns application. This is a free app that you can download from the Shure website. The app has a basic user interface and is easy to navigate, meaning even beginners will be able to use it. You can monitor the mic levels and gain, which should be set between -6 and -12 dB for optimal sound.
I played around with my settings for a while on the Motiv Mix app, including reverb, vocal tone, denoiser, and high-pass filter. I also customized the colors on the LED touch panel via the app. Shure says you can choose from 16.8 million hues to fully customize the panel, but while you can choose from a full color wheel, the LED itself can only relay limited colors—different shades of green in the app, for example, will all look the same through the LED.
You can record directly into the Motiv Mix app, which is easy to do. The app lets you record up to 8 hours in high-fidelity 32-bit float 48kHz. Annoyingly, it saves all your recordings in individual folders, so you have to manually open the folders and extract the audio file in order to import them into your editing software all at once. You can't edit in Motiv Mix, but I easily imported my .wav files into Audacity and produced them there.
Shure MV7+ podcast microphone review: verdict
The MV7+ is a great choice for podcasters, streamers, content creators, and musicians. With its effective noise cancellation, digital pop protection, and easy USB-C connection alone, it would be a mic to beat. But when you combine all of that with an LED touch panel for instant mute and gain control, this formidable microphone will look great in any amateur, student, or professional setup.
Still, at $279 ($339 with an articulating boom arm or $299 with a desktop stand), this mic isn't cheap, and our best overall mic, the Blue Yeti ($130), is much cheaper and just as easy to use. The LED touch panel is a nice feature, but you'll have to decide if it's worth the extra $150.