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What USB microphone for a speaker setup?

M

mrtheshaggy

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 28, 2003
Messages
1,209
I have a dac/amp/2.0 setup that I am loving. Need a microphone for online gaming. Don't want to have to use on-board sound, so USB is preferred. What do you recommend that isn't too big?
 
I've been researching mics myself, so:

Portable (small) condenser mics, below $50: Samson Go (10mm diaphragms, cardioid + omni, headphone jack, clip-mount, $36 at BHphoto), Samson meteorite (14mm), or Blue Snowflake (unknown diaphragm, but Blue uses 14mm often). The Samson Meteor mentioned below is also quite small.

Samson Go: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep10/articles/samson-gomic.htm = review
http://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/comments/2p7in0/samson_go_mic_is_it_worth_it/ = soundcloud recording.
Samson Meteorite and Meteor: http://www.trustedreviews.com/samson-meteorite-review - meteorite = (14mm diaphragm, no headphone jack = no latency-free voice-monitoring) and meteor = (25mm diaphragm, jack, etc).

Regular condenser mics, below $75: Blue Snowball (cardioid + omni, under $50 shipped), CAD u37 (no headphone jack, under $50 shipped), Samson Meteor (tripod is integrated and short), Audio Technica ATR2500-USB (have heard durability complaints). The Samson meteor, CAD u37, and ATR2500 probably provide a little better sound quality: http://www.reddit.com/r/letsplay/comments/2qh9ut/samson_meteor_vs_blue_snowball/

Dynamic Cardioid mics, to pickup less background noise: Samson Q1u ($50, super cardioid pattern) or Q2u (adds headphone jack and... actual headphones, under $60) Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB ($60)
http://storycenter.org/blog/2014/2/11/your-first-microphone-a-review-of-atr2100-by-ryan-trauman - atr2100 review + explanation of merits of dynamic and condenser mics. It seems to me that dynamic mics require too close a speaking position... not sensitive enough, can't move around much.

Logitech c920 USB webcam: Yep... my friend just uses this for gaming, and it's pretty good. It was $50 around black friday, $60 for a while afterward, and $75 now. Attach to top of LCD.

I think you'd have to ditch the USB to get an acceptable mic for less. The non-portable mics produce noticeably better recordings, but more than $50 is a lot for just gaming. I wish the Antlion ModMic had a USB version with some sort of desktop stand for the same $50... that thing is pretty good.

I mentioned the above mics because people I know have vouched for them.
 
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