Shure MV7+ Review

May 21

Let's cut straight to the point: the Shure MV7 Plus positions itself as the Swiss Army knife of microphones. With both XLR and USB capabilities in one sleek package, it's targeting everyone from podcast beginners to audio professionals. But after putting it through rigorous testing at Bamby Media's production studio, I can tell you exactly where it shines and where it falls short.

The Essential Facts

The MV7 Plus arrives in refreshingly minimal packaging with the microphone, a USB cable, and an integrated pop filter. No XLR cable or stand included – you'll need to source those separately. It’s refreshing to see less plastic packaging from Shure, too. The all-metal construction immediately communicates quality, though at its premium price point, that's exactly what you should expect.

Sound Quality: USB vs XLR

Here's what matters most: this microphone sounds noticeably different depending on how you connect it.

The USB connection delivers brighter, more present audio that works for quick setups, but lacks the depth and warm that the XLR provides. The Motive Mix app offers extensive customisation options that improve the USB performance, but can't fully bridge the quality gap.

Connect via XLR to a proper audio interface, and the microphone has a more organic tone with more depth. The sound becomes fuller and more natural with genuine warmth that podcast listeners and vocalists appreciate. This dual-personality approach of XLR and USB is clever marketing, but creates a clear hierarchy in sound quality. I wll note however that this is not only something I have noticed for the Shure MV7, but basically any microphone that I have reviewed offering dual input options. The USB always sounds more “digitised” and lacks warmth overall.

Real-World Performance Testing

For podcast production, handling plosives and sibilance separates professional-grade equipment from the rest. The included pop filter foam provides moderate protection against plosives in USB mode, performing noticeably better when using XLR. It's an improvement over the original MV7, but still requires proper microphone technique to ensure you’re not popping all over the place.

Sibilance control is adequate but not exceptional. The Motive Mix app allows for some adjustment, but you'll still need post-production de-essing for professional results. This isn't unique to the MV7 Plus, but worth noting for those expecting plug-and-play perfection. I did find the sibilance slightly more prevalent in the XLR format which makes sense as the Motiv Mix app does reduce some of the problematic sounds with the right settings.

Vocal recording reveals the microphone's dynamic vs condenser nature. It handles spoken word excellently but lacks the presence and detail that condenser microphones provide for singing. It's serviceable for musical applications, but not ideal if vocal recording is your primary focus. At a price point of around AU$500, there are other microphones better suited to vocal applications.

Who Should Actually Buy This

The MV7+ makes the most sense for:

Professional podcasters working in untreated spaces who need the rejection properties of a dynamic microphone.
Content creators looking for a single microphone that can grow with their setup.
Professionals who need both USB convenience and XLR quality depending on the situation.

It's not the right choice for:

Budget-conscious creators - there are less expensive options if funds are tight.
Vocal-focused musicians - you'll want a dedicated condenser microphone if your recording space allows for it. If your recording space doesn’t suit a condenser, there are other dynamic microphones that will suit a vocalist better.

The Value Proposition

At its premium price point (particularly inflated in Australia), the MV7+ demands serious consideration. You're paying for versatility and future-proofing rather than best-in-class performance in any single category.

For professional podcast production, specialised tools often outperform hybrid solutions. The MV7+ excels at being good at everything, but it's not the best at anything specific.

Next up, I'll be putting this against the Rode PodMic in a head-to-head comparison to see which delivers better value for podcast production. Stay tuned for that showdown.

Questions about how this microphone might integrate with your specific setup? Book a consultation with me.

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Today we're gonna do a review of the Sure MV seven Plus. This microphone is a dynamic microphone. It is in X, Excel R, and also USB. And what you're listening to right now is me in the USB position. Also noting that I have used the Motive mix app, So I've got my own little preferences dialed in. You're listening to it in the USB format. We're also gonna try it in the XLR format. We're gonna plug this microphone into my focus, right Claret, so you can hear what it sounds like based on whether you have an XLR.
Situation or a USB situation.
So let's get into some things. We're gonna test a few things today. We're gonna test, obviously, how it sounds when I'm talking into the microphone. We're gonna test it from far away and close to me. I'll also do a little bit of singing into the microphone as well, because that is an application that people often [00:01:00] use.
So when this microphone arrives, one of the great things that I like about Sure, uh, more recently is that they've really done away with a lot of the plastic packaging. So it's very minimal what you actually get. In the box, comes with a USB cable. It does not come with an XLR cable, so you'll have to get your own cable there.
And it also has obviously the pop filter, the pop foam on top as well. You can take that off. I don't know why you would personally, but you can certainly take it off. As far as the build quality goes, it's a nice metal construction. Other than the pop phone that is not metal and it's feels sturdy, it's not too heavy.
It's something that you could take with you pretty easily. Uh, it doesn't come with any stand, nothing like that. It just comes with the microphone itself there. So now that we've had a look at what it actually looks like in the box, getting out of the box, what cables it comes with, let's have a [00:02:00] listen to how it actually sounds.
You can hear it right now. I'm talking into this in the USB situation. I'm gonna do some popping, some popping the popcorn right now so that you can hear what kind of pop there is with this microphone. This is called Plosives. Some microphones reflect Plosives better than others. There's also a d. Plosive, uh, in the Motive Mix app, it actually has like a Papa stopper thing that you can actually just switch on in the USB format, but not the XLR format.
I have the D plop, that's not the name. I have the popper stopper on, like switched on at the moment, so it's helping with that a little bit. But now I'm just gonna do some testing here. So, USB format. Popping the popcorn. Popping the popcorn. Popping the popcorn. Now we're gonna switch to the XLR format. Pop the popcorn [00:03:00] popping the popcorn, popping the popcorn.
And I was moving my mouth around the microphone there, just so that there was a little bit of, you know, was it more evident in one place to another that can help you sort of place the microphone where you think it will suit you best if you have a lot of p and b sounds in the way you speak. Some people are just really brutal with the way they say those so they can have problems with foam that isn't quite big enough, or pop filters that that don't quite, they're not quite thick enough.
We're gonna head into the Sance test now. Sance is really just, if you talk kind of through your teeth, you are more likely to have a really prevalent s sort of sound that's in your actual recordings. Some microphones, again, handle that better than others, and also the EQ. Especially in USB microphones that you've adjusted via the DSP settings, they can adjust for that too.
So if you feel like you're getting too much of the S sounds, you can bring [00:04:00] the brightness down in the mode of mix app that will actually help you reduce some of that sibilance. You can also do it in post-production as well. So S sounds sibilance sizzling. The sausages sizzling. The sausages sizzling the sausages.
Sizzling the sausages. That's the USB format. Now we're gonna switch to the XLR format of this test. Sizzling the sausages. Sizzling the sausages. Sizzling the sausages. Sizzling the sausages. I'm going to say the same phrase and we're gonna switch between USB and XLR so that you can hear what that sounds like as well.
I love chocolate chip cookies. I also love chocolate chip ice cream. I like chocolate chip [00:05:00] cookies. I also like chocolate chip ice cream. My name is Brianna and I run Bambi Media. My name is Brianna and I run the company Bambi Media. Now we're gonna do the singing test, so I'm just gonna sing the same song, same little bit of the song, so that you can get a feel for that as well.
This is a song that I'm actually working on. It's one of my own songs at the moment. This one is called Timeline and we'll sing a little bit of that. It's not funny. Ready?
When you feel ready. It's been on my mind. I've gotta.
It's not funny [00:06:00] how I've been red and for the clock to say the right time. When you feel ready. It's been on my mind. I've gotta let you go.
I have my headphones on here now because I just went and listened to all of those tests so that I could give you a recommendation for what I think of this microphone. Could you hear the difference between the USB and the XLR? Input versions. I hope that you could, because there definitely was a difference.
Now, if you couldn't hear a difference, maybe put your headphones on so that you can really hear. Now, what I noticed in the USB format, it is a lot brighter. That is though probably because I have the brightness. 10% in the mode mix application. So I've already made a few little adjustments in the USB [00:07:00] format to get that microphone sounding probably where I would like it to sound best in the XLR format.
You can't do that. You are just given the microphone clean as it is, and then you have to make those adjustments through the, uh, if you have like a, a rack EQ rack compression. If you dunno what those things mean, then you probably don't have them. Otherwise, you can do post-production. Editing and EQing and compression with the XLR.
As far as the actual brightness, the tonality goes, it's probably not so much of a fair comparison between the USB and the XLR because the USBI already have a few little adjustments made. What that does tell me though is that it functions really well in both ways, right? You can have it in XLR and you can have it in USB from a like out of the box situation, the.
XLR sounds more, um, organic, more warm. Whereas the USB it does sound a little bit more digitized. [00:08:00] The sound doesn't sound as full, uh, in the frequencies than the actual XLR version does. So if you like something that's a little bit warmer in tone and, and it's not quite as digital sounding, it's, it's got a.
A broader sound, then the X LR format is going to be for you more than the actual USB version is. In saying that with the USB, you can actually. Adjust the tonality to have more of those basey darker tones, but it doesn't do that good of a job because it's kind of like an eq, right? So it's not sounding the same as it would if it was completely flat on both the XLR and the USB format.
This has definitely got a, a fuller sound in my ear versus the USB version sounds a little bit more. Tinny a little bit, digitized, a little bit, you know, flatter. I suppose overall in the spectrum of the actual sound from the microphone, both ways are [00:09:00] gonna work for you, depending on what your actual process is, what your recording studio situation is like, and I was actually impressed with how they both sounded.
The pop foam on this MV seven Plus I still think has a little bit of a ways to go. It is better than the MV seven, which is the first iteration of this. Type of microphone, but it's still not quite there for me. It still feels a little bit flimsy, uh, and it doesn't stop as much of the popping as I would want it to actually stop.
So not loving the pop filter on this, but it is better than the MV seven on its own. Even though the MV seven plus has that USB option where you can depop, so it's like the pop a stopper, you can switch that on. I actually found that the popping was more prevalent in the USB format even than the XLR format, same exact microphone, but for whatever reason, with the same foam, even with the popping filter [00:10:00] on the USB, it actually popped more for me.
In my ear than the XLR version. Something I will absolutely note about the XLR version of this microphone is that it is gain hungry. I have a very good preamp here. The focus right Claret, it's a fantastic piece of kit, and even with that. I had to turn the level up on this to get it like almost to its absolute max for me to get this volume at a volume that was actually workable.
I don't like it when I have to completely max out the level to get a microphone to where I want it to sit. It always makes me a little bit, uh, because that. Normally introduces some sort of noise into the microphone, so the noise floor that you hear people, uh, talk about. I didn't find that to be the case too much though with this microphone.
Even with it being almost at its max, like I would say it would be 95 out of a hundred on the actual, [00:11:00] uh, gain level there. I still didn't find that it had a lot of noise at its base, so that hasn't been a huge problem. But do note that if you have a lower quality preamp, maybe not a very expensive one, for example, you might not be able to get the amount of gain that you actually need to have this sound really good in an XLR format, I would probably recommend that you get a dynamite se dynamite, which just gives you that extra gain really.
So you can attach this to the XLR microphone and then it will give you more gain. So that is something that you could potentially do if you have a lower quality preamp, you're, you're pulling the game all the way to the top and it's still not doing anything for you. Get one of these and that will boost that for you.
Thanks to se uh, for actually sending me one of these sound and music sent me this se DM one. So that's the one thing that I will say that's definitely a little bit of a [00:12:00] downer for me here, is that if you have a preamp that is lower quality, you will need to boost the gain potentially in other ways to get it to where you want it to sit.
Now, if we move to the price point, so this microphone in Australian dollars is around $500, so I've seen it as low as. 4 99 all the way up to 5 89 on Amazon. That to me, is quite an expensive, uh, X-L-R-U-S-B combo. There are much cheaper X-L-R-U-S-B combos out there. And in fact, I will do some battles with this microphone and a couple of the others that are in a.
Similar space. This is a dynamic microphone. It will handle situations where you have potentially not as much acoustic treatment where you are not in a studio where you are just kind of recording where you are. Dynamic microphones do handle that better in that way, you know, a dynamic microphone is pretty good for podcasters, especially because you, you are often just in [00:13:00] your house.
You don't have a lot of treatment going on. It also reflects. Pretty well, like the other sounds in the room. I'm not hearing a lot of re reverb echo from the room. This room is small, but it does have a lot of hard surfaces, so it has handled that pretty well. I do find that I need to be nice and close, like I often say in basically all my videos when I'm talking about microphones.
The placement is important. So even though in your shot you would prefer not to have a microphone, like if you're doing a YouTube video, you would prefer not to have a microphone just here. You kind of want it here. It will still perform okay down there, and you might want it even at a shot, right? More. It is gonna perform okay down there, but can you hear the difference?
It's, it's definitely nowhere near as good, but I mean, now I'm in the shot really well, I can move my arms around and the microphone's not really doing too much, but I just find it's way too far away from my. Face, especially [00:14:00] if I'm also a podcaster at the same time. It needs to be nice and close, so no matter what microphone you use, really it, the best location for it is going to be as close to your mouth as possible without it obscuring your mouth so that the person actually watching you can see your mouth moving.
So it's quite disconcerting if they can't see your mouth. Another good thing about this microphone in the USB format, which is common for all the USB microphones, is that you can plug the headphones straight into the microphone. You can hear yourself and you can also decide to hear what's going on on your computer too.
So if you're a gamer or a streamer and you are using this as your USB microphone, you can set your level so that you can hear some of yourself and you can also hear the game that you're playing. Or you know, if you are singing over some music and you wanna be able to hear the music and also your. Self.
That's fantastic. It really should be a no brainer for any USB microphone at this point, to have that feature so that you can hear both yourself [00:15:00] and the playback. So who is this microphone for? Well, I've kind of touched on it. I really think that it's suited to podcasters who are not in spaces that they can do much about.
So if you're in your house, if it's a home studio, you have some hard surfaces, you have some things that you know might make. The sound a bit more bouncy, then this microphone will suit you. Well, I love that it's an XLR and A USB format microphone. It means that it will grow with you. So even though the price point is $500, uh, and that might seem like a lot for people starting out, you can start with USB.
Then as you grow and you get maybe a, a rack and you get a preamp that's really good, and you get a compressor like I have here, and you have these little added additions to make your sound even sweeter and fuller and warmer, you can do those things as your podcast and your application grows for it. The XLR format is also really [00:16:00] good if you're wanting to be further away from your recording source.
And again, I have a video that explains the real reason and difference between the XLR and USB. So maybe you could go and watch that one after this one. I think that for a vocalist, so singing into this microphone, it's a dynamic microphone, so it's never gonna be as good as a condenser microphone. From a vocalist point of view, it does a, a pretty good job.
It doesn't give you the presence. That a condenser microphone does. That's always my feedback on condenser versus dynamics. So if you are only doing vocals, then this would not be the microphone that I would recommend for you because there are plenty of good options for condenser microphones that will give you a richer, fuller, warmer tone than a dynamic microphone could ever really give you.
When I did the singing test, it still sounded nice, but I'm looking for some. Extra sparkle in there. [00:17:00] That dynamic microphones don't really give me overall. If you're gonna be doing both, if you're gonna be doing voiceover work and you're going to be doing podcasting, then this is a great choice for you.
Absolutely. It shouldn't fail you. But if you are a vocalist or an instrumentalist, I would recommend other microphones over this one. I hope that was really helpful. I. Think overall this is a great Mike. I like that. You know, they've done a lot of improvements from the MV seven to the MV seven plus. It's kind of sitting now in the middle between their lower end products and then their higher end SM seven db.
So this is kind of still sitting in the shore family, but not quite as expensive as the other one, which is good for people. And obviously there's a, there's a market for it there. If you love this kind of thing, please let me know in the comments. What did you like about this microphone? Have you got this microphone or are you [00:18:00] trying to decide between this one and something else?
I'm going to do some battles, this one and some others, like the road pod mic, which has the exact same USB and XLR applications as well. We're gonna try a few different mics so that you can get a real feel for what might work. Best with your voice. And I hope you have a wonderful day.