This is going to be a pretty short review (jump to the end to skip my ramblings). I don't really buy into the "cable makes a night-and-day difference" crowd; although I've tested for myself how a pair of cable had made a pretty significant differences on several occasion, I cannot rule out that it's due to confirmation bias as it's not done under DBT conditions. Hence, I don't spend additional money just to upgrade my cables, mostly just to get the plugs that I need (2.5mm TRRS, 4.4mm etc).
So this review is gonna focus on the microphone aspects of the cable.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, I will be working from home for the foreseeable future, and my job involves making a lot of calls from my laptop, via a plantronic headset. It works well, but I don't like the bad audio quality, and the on-the-ear design which makes my ear feel hot. Ideally, I rather use my mic with an earphones or customs.
So I went searching around on the market and found only two viable alternatives: Either the modmic or this cable.
At the start of my WFH, the Ethos cable was out of stock and the Null Audio guys have no idea when it will be back in stock because they specially source the microphones from Japan and their production lines were affected by the virus.
The Modmic looks like it could work but I had a few concerns:
1) I wasn't sure if the magnetic attachment can fit on the customs faceplate
2) I wasn't thrilled with the idea of an additional cable (one for the modmic, one for the earphones)
3) The Modmic USB seems to have some problem with Realtek audio.
Fortunately, the Ethos gaming cable came back in stock right before I buy the Modmic.
THE ACTUAL REVIEW:
The microphone is removable and designed to be attached to the right side, though if you want to use it with your left earpiece, just swap the left and right orientation. That's the upside of the microphone port designed as flushed.
However, I would have preferred the microphone to be angled away from my face because the microphone presses against my face and push my customs slightly out of my ear (I tried it with the microphone detached and the seal was perfect, so it was definitely the microphone, not imperfect seal on my customs. I tried it with 2 different customs and had the same issue). It's not that bad, but you can hear the slight difference in seal.
The microphone itself works perfectly. None of the people I spoke with made any comment on my voice input or even noticed that I changed my headset. I tried calling myself and my voice was clear, and it didn't pick up on the wind with my fan blowing at me.
CONCLUSION:
All in all, I am very happy with this purchase and would buy it again if need to. I'm not sure how many people need a high quality microphone for their customs (instead of a headphone with a mic) but if you, the Ethos gaming cable is a fantastic (and only) option for your consideration.
