Ara Setup
Setup of the AKG Ara couldn’t be easier, as it was quickly recognized by Windows and made available as a recording device. Simple tweaks to Discord and Streamlabs OBS were needed to make it our input device, but other than that, the Ara is really a great example of plug-and-play. That simplicity in installation really makes getting up and running a breeze, as outside of the mute and polar pattern functions, all adjustments will need to be made within your operating system and any additional audio applications you may wish to use. All that said, if you are looking for a simple plug-and-play microphone, this may be just what you are looking for.
Ara Usage
Like all of our microphone reviews, the AKG Ara was used in multiple scenarios throughout our testing period. With the dual pickup patterns, the Ara is best suited for podcasting, audio recording from multiple sources, and streaming. The directional audio pickup of a Cardioid pattern really favors being right in front of the microphone for the best results, while the Omnidirectional setting is best suited for something like head-to-head podcast or even a group jam session. Our most used scenarios are podcasting and streaming, though the Ara would be a great upgrade from a built-in webcam microphone for online meetings where improved audio can make a huge improvement. With regards to mounting, the integrated threads at the bottom of the microphone stand made attaching the Ara to my microphone arm a breeze, though I do wish the cable was longer to allow for more flexibility with regards to how far it can be away from the nearest USB port. This mounting method allowed me to have the microphone right in front of myself for great audio pickup of my voice, and reduced audio pickup from my keyboard and mouse. This is especially important during this review, as I don’t test with NVIDIA RTX Voice enabled, which would cut out all of the background noise.
I do want to point out a feature that is missing from the AKG Ara that we have become accustomed to seeing on the most recent microphones we have reviewed – tap-to-mute. This feature may seem minor, but it is really a key improvement in two ways. First is convenience. The ability to simply tap a portion of them microphone is much easier than locating a button on the microphone and pressing it. This may sound trivial, but it really is a game-changer as far as convenience goes. Second is the removal of any unwanted sounds related to muting and unmuting. The AKG Ara, and most other microphones with a physical mute feature, introduces sound to your recordings when muting and unmuting. This is directly related to the button being pressed, which is picked up by the microphone, and introduced to the audio stream. The top of the Ara is the perfect place for this feature to be implemented, and we really hope AKG can incorporate this into future models.
As we have noted in our previous microphone reviews, the sound quality improvement when moving from a headset or webcam-based microphone to a dedicated condenser-style microphone is night and day. Below is a sample audio recording from the AKG Ara, as well as many of our previously reviewed microphones.
AKG Ara
HyperX SoloCast
HyperX QuadCast S
Elgato Wave:3
Corsair VOID Pro
Thronmax MDrill One Pro
Samson G-Track Pro
MXL BCD-1
MXL Tempo
HyperX QuadCast
Corsair VOID Pro