I feel like it was just last year we were writing the 2023 Year in Review, but here we are again!

Enter the ModMic 2 (again)

Interestingly, the ModMic 2 is actually the 8th, or maybe 9th (depending on how you want to count it), generation of ModMics. Older ModMics were all one type (3.5mm) and got numbered in sequence until the Wireless changed that forever when the ModMic 5 was still available. As a result we had to change the naming scheme for future ModMic products to denote what type of ModMic it was: USB, Wireless, and we opted for Uni as in Universal for the 3.5mm model. This is the second generation since the name change.

We did an entire breakdown of this history in our comedic but mildly accurate history of the ModMic post earlier this year!

The ModMic 2 is obviously the big news for the year, and we're pretty thrilled with how it is going so far. The 2s are keeping pace with great reviews and already showing signs of increased durability, fewer support tickets, and general approval by users.

Of course what most of you want to know is...

ModMic Wireless 2, when?

We hope to have the Wireless 2 launched in 2025, no date estimate yet. We had initially planned to launch it alongside the USB and Uni 2, but a series of technical issues caused us to hit the pause button and do something pretty drastic, scrap the design and start over.

The reasons for this are technical and boring, the short version is the hardware we were planning on using was not reaching the performance we expected and rather than beat our heads against the wall trying to fix it or release a product that didn't meet our own expectations, we opted to scrap it and start again.

The main driver behind this decision was...

A New Challenger Appears! Jorel has Entered the Building.

We've been on the hunt for years to find the right engineering staff member to add to the ModMic team. For a scrappy company like Antlion hiring additional full time engineering staff is a big deal, not only from the cost perspective, but to make sure they have the audio chops and aren't afraid to wear more hats than an Alice in Wonderland character.

With that in mind and after a very long and exhausting search we brought on our newest team member, Jorel, just as we were hitting a wall on making progress to resolve our Wireless 2 issues. With Jorel as the project lead on the new Wireless 2 we're confident that the end result will be a higher quality product overall and worth the significant delay. 

Jorel comes from a background of electrical engineering with tons of experience in audio, gaming hardware, and IP design. He's been hard at work here for months and has consistently surprised us with clever ideas, design suggestions, and crafting all kinds of crazy stuff in his private lab. He even tossed together a mic testing rig for our event at IFA Berlin earlier this year at the drop of a hat, complete with paint!

 

Which brings us to...

Our First International Show! IFA Berlin!

As a US based company going to a tradeshow overseas as a booth is, as you can imagine, insanely expensive. However, we're serious about expanding our presence in the EU and beyond and IFA was the right place to continue our push. As the largest technology show in Europe, it was... massive. CES is spread out over many miles of hotels, IFA is just one giant complex with dozens of halls filled with everything in the tech world you can imagine.

We were a little concerned we'd be lost amongst the gigantic TVs and AI powered kitchen appliances, but we found a lot of retailers interested in our little mics and are currently hammering out the deals to bring them to a wide variety of locations. While only one of these is live at the time of writing this, we hope to add multiple new distribution partners in the coming year as a result of our overseas travel.

The mic testing rig in action! One man, 3 microphones. They said it couldn't be done, but here we are.

And finally...

Coming in 2025!

I can't spill too many beans here, but obviously we're still planning on making the Wireless 2 happen next year as we've already said. Additionally we have multiple other new product launches slated for the year, and if we can make that happen it will be our busiest product year ever!

Leaving in 2025!

Goodbye to the Renewed Line! The Renewed line was started as a side project in 2023 to reduce our waste footprint without reducing profit, showing even small companies can add green initiatives without sacrificing anything. We took in returns in the US, checked them, added missing parts back in, and then sold it at a discount to US based customers. While we had hoped the volume would be there to support this abroad, we never quite reached the critical mass to roll this out worldwide.

However, we can say that the program was successful in our goals, putting thousands of landfill-bound ModMics back on the market and finding them a second home.

With the release of the newer ModMic 2s we felt this was the right time to sunset this project, as we're basically sold out of both the renewed USB and Wireless units. In the meantime, we don't have enough returned 2s yet on hand for a renewed version of the new mics. So all we can say for now is we hope to see the return of the Renewed project someday, but for now I'd like to thank everyone who purchased, told a friend, or even took the time to look at this option. We stand by our renewed products with a full warranty and full support as a sustainable way to reduce electronic waste, even by a tiny amount.

Also leaving in 2025 is flat price shipping. Shipping goods has, over the last several years, become insanely expensive. Rather than constantly try to update the "average" shipping price, we're moving to real-time shipping costs. In general this likely means a higher cost for most of you. What we can promise is this: We will not add a "premium" on top of shipping. What you'll see is what we pay (or less). We're looking into any ways we can further decrease the overall fulfillment cost of goods and pass those savings on to everyone. We write this in our effort to remain as transparent as possible with you all on changes we make and why.

We hope everyone has a fantastic New Year and any remaining Holidays (Hanukah, I am looking at you Mr. late to the party!) and we'll catch you in 2025!