Stay a while and listen...

In 2012 James "Jimmy" Console, while standing on tin roof in a lightning storm, slipped and hit his head. When he awoke the design of the ModMic was burned into his mind, as if the the gods themselves had placed it there.

Fervently he began sketching, drawing, and soldering until the very first prototype was ready.

On the tennis courts, Elishaya Wisnievitz rallied as if his very life were on the line. Upon vanquishing his foe and walking back to the locker room he did that thing where you try to walk around someone but they try to walk around you and you just kind of dance back and forth for a while. That dance partner was none other than Jimmy Console. A bond was forged and Jimmy knew a man who wouldn't back down from the "go this way or that way" dance was the right person to be his CEO. He hired Eli on the spot.

The ModMic 1 - 3

With the first member of the team in the (tennis) bag, work began in earnest on the first real ModMic. It was glorious, it was hand soldered, hand crafted, even hand signed, and placed into the most epic of package designs: The cardboard on the inside of a paper towel roll. They sold it on Reddit, forums, and rumor has it the trunk of a car.

The OG packaging from the first ModMics. It belongs in a museum.

With each sale came new ideas for improvement. A new bendable wire, a gooseneck design, a screw-on mic, a better capsule, better connections, better housing, a cool glossy button on the end of the top clasp. The ideas in the early days were fast, furious, and occasionally good.

Their reputation as audio mavericks grew. They eventually ran out of paper towel rolls.

The ModMic 4.0

There were once four different ModMics. The ModMic 4.0 Omni, The ModMic 4.0 Uni, and then each with and without a mute switch. Four SKUs, but how to make them? Jimmy knew his destination: China, where everything is made. In 2013 he set sail for the mainland on a ship designed only for a three hour cruise. He arrived on a tidal wave, ending just outside Shenzhen and walked the rest of the way to the factory. There he set the plans in motion to bring forth the first mass-produced ModMics. Four SKUs to conquer all audio.

In 2014 the first modern ModMics launched. They were sleek, they were stylish, they were sold in a bespoke cardboard rectangle open on both ends. Linus Sebastian loved them and the conquest has begun!

The ModMic 5 (And 4)

In 2016 mass confusion and hysteria surrounded the old ModMic 4.0s. We had four options: Omni, Uni, and both with and without mute. TOO MANY OPTIONS! A war began between the products and when the smoke cleared only the ModMic 4.0 Uni with Mute was standing. It was renamed ModMic 4, the ".0" was banned from all future ModMics. The 4 declared itself king and demanded an actual retail box that closed on both sides.

The lost .0s were defeated but not forgotten. From the ashes of their defeat rose the ModMic 5. It was the ModMic that had it all, BOTH mic modes in one, a cable wrap, a modular cable system with a removable modular mute. It was hot stuff and within months had overtaken the ModMic 4. It had a hexagonal box, which made shipping it inefficient, but we thought it looked cool.

Possibly the last unopened hexagonal ModMic 5 box? It's seen some stuff.

ModMic Wireless

In 2017 Jimmy's methods worked exactly as planned, lightning struck twice and once again he returned from his concussed dream state with a plan: A wireless mic that would outperform every other headset mic. A plan so insane that it couldn't fail. And fail it didn't. In 2018 the ModMic Wireless was born.

If the original ModMics were the Suez Canal then the ModMic Wireless was the Panama... only with fewer bodies buried in either. It was a massively complex product, but in the end there was no doubt: 4s? 5s? They were nothing before the awe-inspiring ModMic Wireless. Numbers were a thing of the past, ModMics would have names from here on out. Also we made a box with a rip-tab so people would stop trying to return used / empty products as new on Amazon. We see you, sneaky people.

Also you can see we hid the Lenny face behind the rip tab! Did you know every Antlion product has a Lenny somewhere on the box? Catch them all!

The ModMic Uni and USB

2019 had a different kind of storm, not one of lightning and revelation, but of sheltering inside and working from home. Just before things got bad, Antlion announced the end of the numbered ModMics and the start of something new. The Uni, which stands for Universal or Uni-directional (nobody knows for sure), was the redesigned ModMic 4, featuring minor improvements and a new capsule while the ModMic 5 morphed into a form even Kafka would be proud of: USB-A!

By using USB instead of 3.5mm we eliminated a lot of the variables between systems. The dual mic modes of the 5 and Wireless moved over with the USB for that extra bit of quality or noise rejecting oomph when you needed it and we bid farewell to modular cables (for now)... 

A fashion show was had and it was decided all ModMic boxes should match, somehow bridging the gap between unification and diversity once and for all! 

Image (and spelling) by Baxtech. So awkward when you wear the same outfit as your siblings.

The ModMic Uni 2 and USB 2

Numbers are back! They've been around since the olden days for a reason, nothing beats a good number. It took 5 years, the longest we've ever gone without a revision, but that isn't because we were lazy. At least, not only because we were lazy.

The pandemic set everyone back to some degree, for the microphone world it was a very busy time. With fewer factories, parts delays, and higher demand we spent the first two years of the pandemic period just focused on keeping our supply lines open. This delayed the Kimura and in turn, the next ModMic revision.

Now the "Jimmy Mic Factory" is back on track and this update focused on one thing: Maximize quality from a single mic capsule. Maybe the old 4.0 was right: One capsule is the solution. So we spent our time determine how to make the housing and a new capsule work together to produce the best possible result. No more fiddling with omni mode or uni mode and no more feeling like you missed out on the omni-mode if you needed 3.5mm terminations. Now all ModMics are created equal! Sort of. Mostly.

They also got a cool new front of box art direction. That box has sure come a long way...

ModMic Wireless 2...?

When? Soon. But not too soon. Like, as soon as we can, ok? I'm going to need you to get get all the way off my back. Geez. Here's a picture of the person who will be on the box. We've named him Jimmy, because he's a dreamer as you can clearly see.

Dream big Jimmy, conquest of the audio world is your destiny