The Epos B20 offers a true plug-and-play experience. Everything you need to get this mic up and running is included in the package, no software installation is required. The microphone easily mounts to the included desktop stand with a single thumbscrew and attaches to any standard boom arm without the need for a mounting adapter. The slim, black metal housing also makes it look good in a variety of setups.
The $199 B20 sounds great out of the box and offers a variety of pattern recording options for most use cases, but the lackluster sound and counterintuitive gain control of the stereo pickup setup stand out as obstacles that prevent it from being one of the the best gaming mics.
Epos B20 Specifications
| Frequency range: | 50 – 20000 Hz |
| Preview / Bit rate | 48 kHz / 24-bit |
| Polar Patterns | Cardioid, Stereo, Omnidirectional, Bidirectional |
| Headphone Amplifier Impedance | 15 ohms |
| Dimensions (extended in foot, LxWxH) | 180.086 x 103.886 x 103.886mm / 7.09 x 4.09 x 10.83in |
| Weight | Microphone and supplied U-mount – 39.68 (1124,909 g), base |
| Additionally | desk stand |
Design of Epos B20
The Epos B20 microphone is a hefty beast, and it comes in a nearly 11-inch-tall cylindrical metal capsule that looks more like a broadcast mic than a gaming peripheral. The grille protecting the condenser feels almost as solid as the capsule itself, with little yielding even when pressed firmly. I/O is kept simple, with a USB-C connector and a 3.5mm jack for direct monitoring on the back of the capsule.
The control layout consists of a microphone mute button and monitor volume wheel on the top of the capsule, with the gain knob and four-way pickup pattern selector on the bottom. The mute button has a handy LED indicator that glows white when the microphone is active and red when muted. It would have been helpful if Epos included similar indicator lights for the volume and gain controls.
The Epos B20 is supplied with a swing arm that can be mounted on the supplied base stand with the thumbscrew in the package or on a boom via the standard thread without the need for additional mounting equipment. This is a very nice gesture and makes installation quick and painless. If there’s one complaint I do have, it’s that the desk mount doesn’t feel balanced – the mic capsule and attached swing arm are on the heavy side and the ring-shaped desk mount can wobble slightly under the weight. This is especially noticeable when making adjustments to the microphone position – it is often necessary to hold the base in place so that your attempts to position the microphone at a better angle will move the entire device. A thicker base mount that uses the same threads as an armrest might have been a more convenient and solid design choice.
Overall, the Epos B20 strikes a nice balance between simplicity, premium build and convenience, while staying away from the gaudy aesthetic that characterizes gaming gear.
Sound quality of Epos B20
The Epos B20 offers excellent sound quality with a wide frequency response ensuring accurate vocal reproduction – bass frequencies were rich and round without sounding boomy, mids without emphasizing an annoying honkiness and trebles were crisp and clear with no harshness or hiss . The tonality of the Epos B20 is nicely balanced without sounding too compressed. On recordings you can hear a warmth that is pleasant to the ear. The basic tone of the microphone is quite impressive and a lot better than most gaming grade peripherals.
The Epos B20 gives users a choice of four pick-up patterns. This is nice for situational versatility, but not all settings are created equal in terms of usability. The cardioid and omnidirectional notches on the dial provided the best results when using the B20 as a desktop microphone, with balanced tone and minimal ambient noise pick-up. There is a noticeable difference in input gain sensitivity between the two, with the Omnidirectional setting being a bit on the hotter side and not very good at keeping room noise out of your recordings and broadcasts.
The bi-directional pattern is the hottest notch on the dial and is best used when the B20 is tree-mounted – keyboard chatter and other competing sounds can be picked up as loud as your voice if you use this pick-up pattern with your microphone on your desk . When switching recording patterns, keep in mind that the hotter your input signal is, the more you’ll need to lower the gain on the mic to compensate and avoid clipping. All three of these settings have their advantages depending on your usage situation, but the stereo pickup setting is a bit of a head scratcher.
With Stereo selected, there was a very noticeable drop in input gain and overall clarity and ambient noise levels increased from barely noticeable to extremely annoying. Unless you’re a fan of broadcasts that sound like they were recorded with a wall of cushions covering the mic, it’s best to avoid the stereo setting altogether.
The Epos B20 needs few adjustments to sound great in a mix, but getting there can be a bit problematic at times. Other than using spare headphones as an in-ear monitor for broadcasting or carefully monitoring the output fader level of your streaming or recording software, there’s really no way to intuitively know how your input gain is set. A notched dial or an LED to indicate how hot the mic is would be very useful, but Epos instead gave us a smooth, infinitely scrolling gain knob that offers no visual or tactile feedback. To have a rough idea of how your input gain is set, no software or external in-ear monitors would be needed.
Features and software of Epos B20
The Epos B20 has been designed with simplicity in mind – there is no need to download a software package, meaning the user must rely on their preferred streaming software to set the levels and monitor the input gain for the microphone . This is where the addition of some sort of LED indicator on the microphone itself would have come in handy. Other than checking your output levels in third-party software or through direct monitoring, there’s really no way to tell how you’ve set your gain.
Bottom Line
The Epos B20 looks and sounds like a professional broadcast microphone, with excellent build quality, attractive design, convenient mounting options and superior sound reproduction, but it has some significant shortcomings that make the $199 price tag hard to swallow for some.
The supplied desk stand is a bit on the light side for the hefty B20, so that the entire device shifts when adjusting the microphone angle. The swing arm also feels wobbly and loose when mounted on the table stand.
Most pickup patterns sound excellent, but the stereo setting leaves a lot to be desired. When the stereo pickup pattern is selected, the B20 will sound muffled and background noise will become much more difficult to control. It may be better not to use the Stereo setting at all unless you have time for extensive adjustments afterwards.
Perhaps the most frustrating problem with the B20 lies with the gain knob. Rather than opting for a watch face that gives the user a clear indication of where their level is set, Epos equipped the B20 with a watch face that smoothly sweeps infinitely in either direction. An LED indicator or at least a notched dial would have been very useful. Without any visual or tactile user feedback, in-ear monitoring and careful study of the input signal readout in streaming software is essential to avoid clipping.
It’s great that Epos offers an extremely well-built, great-sounding, and conveniently designed (I loved the fact that no additional parts were needed to mount the unit on a tree) microphone in the B20, but the $199 price is a bit hard to justify in a field full of high end options. The B20 is an excellent choice for a plug-and-play broadcast-quality microphone solution, but the Rode NT Mini is also a great option at half the price. Hyper X’s Quantcast S offers a similar form factor and multiple pickup pattern options for $50 less — plus you get RGB lighting if that’s something you want. While the B20 is an excellent microphone in its own right, the pricing means we can only recommend it hesitantly rather than with full enthusiasm.