Earthworks Audio has long been known for its professional studio mics, but USB microphones for podcasters and gamers is an entirely new realm. At $349, the Earthworks Audio Icon is priced high for the category, though if we were judging by looks alone, it would be worth every penny, with an absolutely gorgeous, webcam-friendly design. As for audio quality, the Icon is a single-pattern (cardioid) condenser that uses no digital signal processing (DSP), so it delivers a relatively transparent signal. It’s ideal if you’re comfortable using EQ and compression in the mixing process and are looking for a camera-ready mic. But novice recorders might appreciate the guidance and training wheels DSP presets provide, which you can easily find in a more affordable (if not as attractive) alternative.
A Standout Design
A fair portion of the USB mics we test are far less expensive than the Icon, and they often look and feel that way—plastic is a common design element. Everything about the Icon, on the other hand, looks and feels thoughtfully designed. The mic itself is beautiful, made of shiny stainless steel with dramatic cutaways, and a grille that matches the enclosure’s finish. It’s on the small side for a pro mic but about average for a USB model, at 5.5 by 1.6 inches (HW) and 1.5 pounds.
Internally, the cardioid-pattern 10mm diaphragm provides a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz, and can withstand acoustic input up to 132db SPL. It has a depth of 16 bits and a sample rate of 48kHz—nearly every other mic we mention in this review exceeds these specs, so especially given the Icon’s price, this is a legitimate shortcoming. Perhaps for podcasts and streaming it’s less notable, but for recording high-quality audio for music, a higher bit depth and sample rate, while not essential, is preferable.
A knob on the back panel controls gain, and next to it are a direct 3.5mm headphone jack and a micro USB port for the included cable. The cable terminates in USB-A, and is made by Anker—it also has a woven cover with an almost metallic sheen that matches the aesthetics of the mic nicely. The knob has a midpoint detent, and can also be pressed like a button. The button is what Earthworks calls a “haptic mute switch”—when engaged, you hear a click sound for reassurance that you’ve actually muted the mic. (When un-muting, you will not hear the click.) Perhaps a constant LED would be more useful here, so you have a visual indicator that things are muted.
There is an LED indicator, but it’s designed to be seen by the user only (depending on mic placement), under the mic at the connection point for the ball joint, and it doesn’t change colors for mute mode. The LED shines blue for power on, green for active audio transmission, and red when the mic is clipping.
The mic stand itself is thoughtfully designed by Triad-Orbit. It has a heavy base and is on the short side, but thanks to a ball joint, the mic’s angle is completely adjustable, so you should have no issue getting it perfectly placed on your desktop. The ball can also be unscrewed from the mic stand and the mic can be connected to any standard stand, with the excellent flexibility of the ball joint intact.
MacOS users will have a seamless plug-and-play experience with the Icon, while Windows users with pro-level recording software that supports low-latency ASIO drivers (Pro Tools and Ableton live, to name two) will need to download a driver to ensure a low-latency monitoring experience. Earthworks suggests the ASIO4ALL driver, which is free. That said, the mic should work out of the box with most basic recording software on either macOS or Windows—the user experience for Windows will simply be improved with the driver.
Plugging the mic into a 2019 iMac, GarageBand recognized it immediately, but where most mics will be recognized by their actual name, instead of appearing Earthworks Audio Icon, it showed as USB Audio CODEC. This didn’t affect the operation of the mic at all, but it’s a quirk that makes the user experience seem somewhat less polished.
What’s missing? At this price, a pop filter would be a reasonable and helpful inclusion, especially with no DSP in the mix. And the mic has no volume knob for headphones, so the gain level will determine what you hear through the headphone jack. (One note about headphone monitoring: We noticed some slight latency when monitoring from the jack directly and using the Icon with GarageBand. This is hardly unique, but monitoring via your DAW or PC might be a better option in some cases, depending on your recording software and computer.)
DSP-Free Audio
The Icon is in the select school of USB mics that give you the opportunity for a pure signal free of baked-in audio processing. This means it’s far easier to distort with plosives or high gain levels, and most users will want to run it through some sort of dynamic compression (and possibly EQ) to obtain a typical pro-style vocal sound. That said, there’s an art to proper recording, and if you have a good mic (and mic placement) technique, reliance on compression and EQ becomes far less necessary.
The built-in gain knob provides a wide range of levels to work with. For most speaking-level vocals (like podcasts), you’ll almost certainly need to pump the gain past the middle point; for very loud vocalists this may be less necessary. But all of the space in the gain below the midpoint makes the Icon a solid choice for relatively loud sound sources, like an amplified instrument. At a low gain level, the Icon can likely handle a moderately loud guitar amp without issue.
The mic’s ability to record without DSP and at low levels makes it tempting to use in extremely close-miked scenarios. We tried it and it can sound great, whether you’re trying to capitalize on the proximity effect and get a little more low-end in the signal, or you want to record whisper-level vocals. But a pop filter at these close distances is a must-have accessory.
Compared with the DSP-free Mackie Carbon ($150), the Icon sounds a little warmer, and a bit less bright and crisp, but you wouldn’t describe the signal as dull or muddy in the slightest. It’s simply providing a relatively unsculpted sound, free of much of the high-mid boosting we often hear, especially in less expensive mics with DSP presets. Stacked against more similarly priced DSP-free options, the Icon offers one of the more transparent signals of the bunch. That’s neither a compliment nor an insult—mics are chosen for their sound signature, so the advantage here is that you get a more or less pure recording to work with.
If you want some dynamic compression baked in, but want to avoid DSP, the $350 Apogee HypeMiC is free of DSP but includes a few analog compression modes that can be applied to the signal before the analog-to-digital conversion process. Of course, traditionally that’s part of the mixing process—the question is whether you see the ability to sculpt the audio yourself with EQ and compression as necessary flexibility, or extra work.
The Icon’s sound signature is closest to the $400 Sennheiser MK 4 Digital and the $170 Blue Yeti X. Both are DSP-free options and have a bit more high-mid presence than the Icon, but sound closer to transparent than many other models we’ve tested.
If it’s help in the form of DSP presets you want, the $250 Shure MV7 is a solid solution. Its presets aren’t overdone, they’re adjustable to a degree with the Shure app, and they can be completely disabled for a DSP-free audio transmission. Even more intriguing, the MV7 can be used as both a USB and XLR mic.
Good Looks and Performance
For the money, the Earthworks Audio Icon gets the important things right. It delivers a pro-level, DSP-free audio signal that’s light on sculpting. This means it isn’t for beginners, or people used to working with mics with presets. The emphasis is on accuracy, and to that end, there’s plenty of room to EQ on your own. If you’re comfortable with such a practice, the Icon is a strong offering—and it certainly looks sharp for video.
