In this guide: The short answer · Spec comparison table · Shure Microflex · Audio-Technica · Sennheiser · Mute switches and LEDs · Mounting and bases · Which for which room · Windscreens and shock mounts · Popular picks · FAQ

This guide is the spec sheet comparison: the numbers and options that separate one gooseneck from another, taken from each manufacturer’s own documentation. How conference systems are built, automixing, hearing loops and hybrid meetings are covered in our conference and gooseneck microphone systems guide, so they are not repeated here.

The short answer

• For a lectern or pulpit that just needs a good, reliable mic: the Shure MX412/C (12 inch gooseneck, cardioid) or, where the person speaking stands further back or varies a lot in height, the MX418/C (18 inch). Both come with a shock mount, a flange and a foam windscreen, and the cartridge can be swapped later to change pattern.
• On a tighter budget: the Audio-Technica PRO49Q (332mm) or PRO49QL (418mm). Plug-in cardioid condensers with an XLR on the base and nothing else to set up.
• For a council chamber or committee table where each person mutes their own mic: a gooseneck with its own mute switch and LED, such as the Shure MX418S/C, or a plain gooseneck on a switched base such as the Sennheiser MAT 133-S.
• For a hard, live room where you need maximum rejection: a tighter pattern: Shure supercardioid (/S), the Audio-Technica UniLine U857QU (90° acceptance angle) or the Sennheiser ME 36 super-cardioid/lobar head on an MZH gooseneck.

Every microphone in this guide except one is a condenser and needs phantom power. The exception is the Audio-Technica U855QL, a moving-coil dynamic. If you are not sure your mixer provides phantom power on the channel, read phantom power and DI boxes explained first.

Spec comparison table

Lengths are the manufacturer’s figures. Shure sells its standard goosenecks as 12 inch and 18 inch models; the millimetre lengths given here are the ones Shure lists for each model on its Microflex spec sheet.

Frequency response, again from the manufacturers: Shure Microflex 50 Hz to 17 kHz, PRO49Q 70 Hz to 16 kHz, U857 series 30 Hz to 20 kHz, U859QL 100 Hz to 16 kHz, U855QL 150 Hz to 16 kHz, MEG 14-40 50 Hz to 20 kHz, and the ME 34, ME 35 and ME 36 heads 40 Hz, 50 Hz and 40 Hz to 20 kHz respectively. For speech, the low end matters less than pattern, length and placement. The 80 Hz roll-off switch on the U857 and U859 models is there to reduce popping, low-frequency ambient noise such as air handling, and vibration coming up through the mounting.

Shure Microflex MX412 and MX418

The Microflex standard goosenecks are the models most people have in mind when they ask for a lectern microphone. Shure describes them as designed primarily for speech and vocal pickup, for lecterns, pulpits and conference tables.

The model code tells you everything:

• MX412 or MX418: 12 inch or 18 inch gooseneck. Shure also lists an MX424 (24 inch).
• S after the number (MX412S/C, MX418S/S): adds a mute button and LED on the microphone.
• D: a desktop base with programmable mute button, LED and logic input and output, for tables where you cannot drill.
• SE: a surface mount flange with an in-line preamp and side-exit cable that can be changed to bottom exit.
• /C, /S, /N: cardioid cartridge, supercardioid cartridge, or no cartridge supplied. An /N such as the MX412S/N arrives with nothing on the end; it is for buyers who specify the cartridge separately, for example the R185B cardioid cartridge.

Shure supplies the standard MX412 and MX418 with an attached XLR preamp, a shock mount, a flange mount and a snap-fit foam windscreen. The shock mount gives over 20 dB of isolation from surface vibration, which matters on a wooden lectern that gets leant on and knocked. Shure’s placement advice is to have the tip of the microphone 15 to 30cm from the talker, aimed away from loudspeakers.

Cardioid or supercardioid? On the same capsule platform, the supercardioid MX412/S and MX418/S narrow the front pickup at the cost of a small rear lobe. Choose /S if the room is reverberant or there is a loudspeaker to the side of the lectern; stay with /C if speakers move around and drift off-axis, or if a loudspeaker sits directly behind the mic.

Shure also makes the modular MX405, MX410 and MX415 goosenecks, which pair the gooseneck with a separate surface-mount preamp or desktop base. Shure specifies 48 to 52V phantom for those, so check your mixer before choosing one. They suit a permanent install more than a lectern swap.

Audio-Technica PRO49Q, U857 series, U859QL and U855QL

All of the Audio-Technica goosenecks here are “quick-mount”: the microphone has an XLR male insert in its base and plugs straight into a female XLR, whether that is a panel socket set into a lectern, a desk stand or a cable. There is no separate preamp to fit.

PRO49Q and PRO49QL

The entry point. A cardioid condenser at 332mm (PRO49Q) or 418mm (PRO49QL), with integral electronics that run on 9 to 52V phantom and an AT8146 foam windscreen in the box. No switch, no LED, no interchangeable element: you plug it in and aim it. For a school hall lectern or a village hall that needs one dependable speech mic, that simplicity is the point.

U857Q, U857QL, U857QU and U857QLU

The installation-grade range. The U857Q (365mm) and U857QL (481mm) are cardioid with a 120° acceptance angle. The U857QU (487mm) and U857QLU (603mm) are UniLine line cardioid models with a narrower 90° angle and higher sensitivity. All four have an 80 Hz, 18 dB per octave roll-off switch, Audio-Technica’s UniGuard RFI shielding, a two-stage foam windscreen and an AT8662 shock mount, and run on 11 to 52V phantom.

The useful feature for a long-term install is that the element can be swapped. Audio-Technica offers hypercardioid (100°), omnidirectional (360°) and UniLine (90°) elements for the cardioid models, and cardioid, hypercardioid and omni for the UniLine models, so you can tighten or widen the pattern without changing the gooseneck.

U859QL

The U859QL is a 480mm cardioid condenser with the same 80 Hz roll-off switch and 11 to 52V phantom, and a narrower 100 Hz to 16 kHz frequency response.

U855QL

The odd one out. The U855QL is a 448mm moving-coil dynamic cardioid with an all-metal build, which Audio-Technica designs for talk-back, paging and dispatch in noisy environments. It does not rely on phantom power and its 150 Hz to 16 kHz response is tailored for intelligibility rather than full-range voice. Good for a control room talkback position or a sports hall announcer desk; a condenser will sound more natural on a pulpit.

Sennheiser MEG 14-40 and the MZH/ME system

MEG 14-40 B and MEG 14-40-L-II B

The MEG 14-40 B is a one-piece gooseneck: a 40cm flexible section, 450mm overall, with Sennheiser’s KE 10 cardioid capsule (120° acceptance angle), RF shielding, an XLR-3M connector and 12 to 48V phantom. Sennheiser lists it for use with its MAT 133 and MAT 133-S table stands.

The MEG 14-40-L-II B adds a green LED ring below the capsule to show who has the floor. The ring is powered separately, 12 to 30V DC on pins 4 and 5, which is why this version has an XLR-5M connector. Sennheiser’s compatibility list for the MEG 14-40-L-II B names the MAT 153-S B table stand (and its wireless SpeechLine tablestand): a base for XLR-5 light-ring goosenecks with a microphone button, a two-colour status display, an XLR-3M output and a TTL logic output. The MAT 153-S runs on 48V phantom from the mixer over a standard XLR-3 cable, which powers both the microphone and its LED ring. The 5-pin plug will not go into a standard 3-pin XLR socket, so order the base with it.

MZH goosenecks with ME 34, ME 35 or ME 36 heads

Sennheiser’s modular option separates the gooseneck from the capsule. The goosenecks carry the preamp in their XLR-3 connector housing and run on 12 to 48V phantom: the MZH 3015 is 150mm, the MZH 3040 400mm, and the MZH 3042 400mm with two flexible sections, a double bend that Sennheiser says allows more precise positioning.

Then you choose the head: ME 34 cardioid, ME 35 super-cardioid, or the ME 36, a 96mm mini shotgun with a super-cardioid/lobar pattern and the lowest self-noise of the three (23 dB(A) against 26 dB(A)). The ME 36 is the one to consider where you want the most directional pickup from this range; the short MZH 3015 keeps the whole thing low and discreet on a lectern edge.

Mute switches and LEDs: on the mic or on the base?

In a chamber or boardroom, a visible “this mic is live” indicator and a mute button for each person are often the deciding feature. The three brands handle it differently:

Sennheiser documents four button modes on the MAT 133-S (toggle on/off, push-to-mute, push-to-talk, and permanently on with external LED control), a bi-colour light ring and a TTL logic output that can be used for things like camera control. Shure’s D-model desktop bases similarly have DIP switches for momentary or toggle and push-to-mute or push-to-talk, plus logic leads to hand LED and mute control to an automatic mixer.

A plain lectern mic used by one person at a time usually does not need a mute switch at all: the operator or the person at the mixer controls it. Mute switches earn their keep where several people share a table and each needs to take themselves off air.

Mounting: plug-in, shock mount, flange or table base

• Into a lectern or pulpit, permanently. Shure MX412 and MX418 come with both a flange (22mm hole) and a shock mount (44mm hole) and the shock mount is the better choice on a hollow wooden lectern. Audio-Technica’s U857 series includes an AT8662 shock mount (51mm hole). For Sennheiser MZH goosenecks, the MZS 31 is the shock mount.
• Into an existing XLR socket. Any quick-mount Audio-Technica, the MEG 14-40 B and the MZH goosenecks plug straight into a female XLR panel socket. Check the socket is mounted solidly: a long gooseneck acts as a lever on it.
• On a table, no drilling. Use a weighted base: the Sennheiser MAT 133 (plain, XLR-3 in and out), the switched MAT 133-S, the Shure A412B desktop base (Shure describes it as for temporary mounting where permanent installation is impractical, with an angled XLR input to keep a low profile), or the Audio-Technica desk stands above. The Sennheiser MAT 133 and MAT 133-S need P24 to P48 phantom, and the MAT 153-S needs 48V, so a mixer that only offers 12V phantom is not enough for them.

If you are moving a microphone between a lectern and a table, the plug-in Audio-Technica and Sennheiser designs are the most flexible: the same gooseneck can go into a lectern socket one week and a desk stand the next. The standard Shure MX412 and MX418 work this way too, through their attached XLR preamp.

Which gooseneck for which room

Church lecterns and pulpits

Readers and preachers vary in height and rarely stand in the same place twice, so err towards length and a pattern that tolerates a little movement. The Shure MX418/C or Audio-Technica U857QL are sensible defaults. In a stone church with loudspeakers on pillars either side, the supercardioid MX418/S or the UniLine U857QU buy extra rejection. A shock mount is worth fitting: page turns and hands on the lectern are a constant source of thumps. For the rest of the system, see our church AV upgrade guide, and for the choir, how to mic a choir.

Council chambers and committee rooms

Here each seat needs its own microphone and the people using them are not sound engineers, so a mute button and a clear live indicator are worth paying for. Either the Shure MX418S/C set into the desk, or a MEG 14-40 B on a MAT 133-S where the furniture cannot be drilled. Where the chair wants a light ring visible from across the room, the MEG 14-40-L-II B with the MAT 153-S is built for that. Seated speakers are lower and closer than standing ones, so 12 inch to 400mm goosenecks are usually enough. With more than a handful of open microphones, an automatic mixer becomes essential; Shure itself recommends one for four or more open mics.

School halls

One lectern, many users, a lot of handling. The Audio-Technica PRO49QL is simple and plugs straight into an XLR, and the longer 418mm version gives more room to adjust between a pupil and an adult. If the mic lives on a desk for assemblies and gets moved to the stage for productions, put it on a weighted base rather than fixing it. Our school AV guide covers the rest of the hall.

Conference and boardroom tables

Shorter goosenecks look tidier on a table and on camera. The Shure MX412/C, Audio-Technica U857Q or the compact Sennheiser MZH 3015 with an ME 34 or ME 35 head keep a low profile. If the room is used for hybrid meetings, the microphone is only half the answer: see conference room AV for the processing side.

Windscreens, cartridges and shock mounts

The Shure and Audio-Technica condensers ship with a foam windscreen. Windscreens go missing and split, so it pays to keep spares:

• Shure Microflex: RK412WS snap-fit windscreens (pack of four). Shure says the snap-fit windscreen gives 30 dB of pop protection. Shure’s A400SM shock mount is listed for the MX412 and MX418.
• Audio-Technica PRO49: AT8146 windscreen, the one supplied with the PRO49Q.
• Audio-Technica U857QU and U857QLU: AT8154 two-stage windscreen, the one supplied with the UniLine models.
• Sennheiser ME 36: MZW 36 foam windshield.
• Shure replacement cartridges: the R185B is Shure’s black cardioid cartridge for all Microflex models.

Popular picks from the shop

Frequently asked questions

What is the best lectern microphone?

For most churches, councils and lecture rooms, a cardioid condenser gooseneck around 12 to 18 inches long on a shock mount, such as the Shure MX412/C or MX418/C or the Audio-Technica U857Q or U857QL. The PRO49Q and PRO49QL are the simpler, lower-cost alternatives. Pick the longer version if speakers vary in height or stand back from the lectern.

Shure MX412 or MX418: which length do I need?

The MX412 is Shure’s 12 inch model and the MX418 its 18 inch model; Shure’s spec sheet lists them at 331mm and 473mm. The 18 inch reaches a standing speaker’s mouth more easily from a low lectern shelf and allows more adjustment; the 12 inch is neater on a table or a high lectern where the mic already sits close to the talker. Shure recommends 15 to 30cm from mic tip to mouth.

Do gooseneck microphones need phantom power?

The condenser ones do: Shure MX412 and MX418 need 11 to 52V, Audio-Technica PRO49Q 9 to 52V, the U857 and U859 series 11 to 52V, and Sennheiser MEG 14-40 and MZH goosenecks 12 to 48V. Standard 48V phantom from a mixer covers all of them. The Audio-Technica U855QL is a dynamic and does not rely on phantom power.

What does /N mean on a Shure gooseneck?

No cartridge. A Microflex /N model is the gooseneck and preamp without a capsule, for buyers who specify the cartridge separately. /C means cardioid and /S supercardioid cartridge included.

Why does the MEG 14-40-L-II need a special base?

The light ring is powered through pins 4 and 5 of its 5-pin XLR at 12 to 30V DC, so it needs an XLR-5 base that supplies that power. Sennheiser lists the MAT 153-S B table stand as the compatible wired base, and the MAT 153-S itself needs 48V phantom from the mixer.

Cardioid or supercardioid for a lectern?

Cardioid is more forgiving if the speaker moves off-axis. Supercardioid rejects more from the sides, which helps in reverberant rooms or with side-mounted loudspeakers, but it has a small rear lobe, so keep loudspeakers out from directly behind it.