YPA omnidirectional headset microphone review (for linguists) Please note that all of the comments below must be kept in perspective: This microphone costs $39.99, which is 10-20 times less than its current mainstream competition. If you have never heard of the YPA microphone brand, do not feel bad - neither have I, until recently. As more and more microphones are manufactured in China, it was only a matter of time for a Chinese OEM microphone manufacturer to emerge with low-cost alternatives to name-brand models. YPA makes an omnidirectional, headset microphone that is compatible with the most common wireless standards, including for Shure and for Sennheiser. Luckily, with a phantom power adaptor, such microphones can also be used in a wired configuration, provided phantom power is supplied by a microphone pre-amplifier or field recorder. The microphone has good electrical and acoustic performance, certainly better than the price sticker might indicate. The microphone is quite useable. It has high sensitivity and low self-noise. The frequency response in the speech-specific part of the spectrum is good, with no indication of any particular bias. Transient response and phase response are both very good, as well. The microphone sounds good. I would not hesitate to use it for a non-critical speech gathering project or for recording interviews or podcasts. The microphone boom is detachable and is extremely lightweight, thus making it easy to implement in a DIY headset. You can use the supplied neckband, but it is not my favorite way of using such microphones. Finally, the microphone is compatible with the Shure system, and I have reason to believe that the models with Sennheiser and Audio-Technica connectors would work just as well.