Tech Junkie Review – Dark Matter Sentry Streaming Microphone

The microphone that’s built into your laptop stinks. The microphone that’s built into your webcam probably stinks too. Yet, with video chatting, Zoom meetings and video game streaming becoming commonplace these days many of us rely on those microphones more than ever before. Perhaps it’s time to step up your microphone game? I took the Dark Matter Sentry streaming microphone from Monoprice.com for a test.

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The Dark Matter mic looks like so many other computer microphones that we’ve seen before. It stands about 10″ tall when sitting in the very heavy dude metal stand that’s included in the box. The USB-C plug is on the bottom and plugs into any PC, no drivers needed. On the front you have a gain control knob and volume control knob for the headphone jack on the front as well. On the top of the mic, things get interesting. The mode button and 4 lights switches between 4 different recording modes. You have cardioid (which records sound from the front of the mic), bi-directional (designed for recording two people on each side of the mic), stereo (great for recoding music or anything that would be served by a left/right recording) and omnidirectional (which records on all sides of the microphone).

The built-in lights add a fun look to the Dark Matter microphone. Clearly this is aimed at attracting gamers who might use the mic for streaming. You can switch between multiple colors with a button hidden on the bottom of the microphone or turn the lights off altogether. A cool touch that gives your home office or gaming setup that extra touch.

Who cares about the lights, or the stand… you want to know how it sounds, right? Here’s a sample I recorded.

I really like this microphone and I think it’s a great upgrade for someone looking for an affordable USB microphone to add to their home gaming or office setup. With that said, even though this mic looks like a much more expensive microphone don’t expect it to sound like a $1,000 studio mic.

I give the Black Matter Sentry Streaming Microphone from monoprice.com 3.5 geeks out of 5.

You can buy the Black Matter Sentry streaming microphone directly from Monoprice.com and I found an additional 20% off discount with the code 20GIFTS.

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