Audio Technica AT2040USB Review

Design

• Professional look
• Handy on-board controls
• No stand in the box

The AT2040USB carries a classic studio mic look, with a cylindrical black metal chassis that exudes class and professionalism. It’s only broken up by the occasional white Audio Technica logo on the side, a capacitive mute button on top and the metal mic grille on the sides and top.

It’s a very clean-looking option, especially as it doesn’t come with any additional shock mounting or fabric pop filter on the outside to make it any bigger than it needs to be. As is becoming quite common for some microphones, the AT2040USB’s pop filter is internal.

The interface on the underside is clean and convenient, with a headphone jack for monitoring and a USB-C port for connectivity. In the middle is a small toggle switch for the ‘Low Cut’ mode.

There are also two small dials – one for adjusting the monitoring volume, and one for the mix between vocal and computer audio. It’s a shame there isn’t one for on-board gain control, as I’d have arguably expected. 

The top side of the AT2040USB has a capacitive touch mute button, complete with a red LED that lights up when it’s muted; otherwise, it’s blue. It’s a good idea, but it can be prone to accidental touches, especially if you want to keep the microphone steady when adjusting it.

You don’t get anywhere to mount the microphone in the box, so you will need to provide your own desktop stand or boom arm. It at least uses a standard thread size to screw onto a stand or arm, and it worked well enough in my case.

Performance

• Ideal for voiceovers
• Rich, full-bodied pickup
• Impeccable noise rejection

Audio Technica has a good reputation when it comes to seriously excellent USB mics, as seen previously with the AT2020USB+, and I hoped it’d continue with the AT2024.

With this mic, they’ve decided to use a dynamic capsule, which is designed to work better in untreated spaces and deal with noise rejection in a stronger manner than their condenser counterparts. It also has a focused hypercardioid pickup pattern, which means it’s ideal for picking up noise right in front of it, such as voices.

The resulting audio is rich and smooth, and fantastic for voiceover, podcast or streaming workloads. I was impressed by the body and depth it captured straight out of the box, and it almost sounded as if some EQ had been applied without me touching anything.

The AT2040USB’s lovely results also showcased its impeccable noise rejection, which completely removed the noise from two nearby fans in front and behind me, my whirring PC, and a loud keyboard.

Even playing music at a reasonable volume from my Sonos Beam soundbar-cum-PC-speaker didn’t phase it – all that came through was my voice loud and clear. For the price, it’s seriously impressive, as long as voice work is what you’re going to be doing.

That’s the real limit to this Audio Technica microphone, as its dynamic capsule and hypercardioid polar pattern mean it isn’t necessarily the best for use with instruments or scenarios where you’re recording in stereo or with one mic for more than one person.

Features

• No additional software
• Low-cut filter is a pleasant addition

The AT2040USB is quite bereft in regard to its features, lacking any form of software, as some of its rivals do. Its only means of control or configuration are the dials and buttons on the bottom. I did find it to work plug and play over USB, being instantly recognised in Windows or macOS.

The toggle switch for the low-cut filter is a pleasant touch, which does the job of eliminating low-frequency noises to help reduce the impact of vibrations and potentially annoying ambient noise.

Should you buy it?