I don't know how the Blue Yeti continues to get so much praise. i got one years ago when the hype was especially fresh. People were using it over their headset mics for comms while gaming but I swear there is no way anyone who recommended them for that ever heard the mic from the other end. It picks up everything. Even on an arm with a shock mount and pop filter it's still better to just use a properly directional headset mic. Better to sound like you're talking over a can and string than to have every little sound clearly audible.
> I don't know how the Blue Yeti continues to get so much praise.
Because they're fine mics for folks who are familiar with using condenser mics or willing to learn. Otherwise, dynamic mics are a safer bet — the ATR2100x-USB is a great starter mic, for example.
> It picks up everything.
Not any more than a dynamic would if cranked to a comparable gain level, which is a popular myth¹ about condensers.
I bought a Yeti at a huge discount (CAD$89) during Black Friday and haven't regretted it for a minute.
I'd read previously that there were better alternatives, but I had this product in front of me and went for it. The website claims it's "marketed to be much more than what it is", but everyone I've spoken to about it knows it's an entry-level jack of all trades.
All my colleagues say the sound quality is excellent and there's no background noise to be heard Teams & Discord.
I've used a Rode NT USB for about a year now. It's a USB mic, so that may dissuade some. For basic use, it's a great mic. I do a tiny bit of voice recording and it works fine.
To be fair, my recording space is treated, so most mics sound better in it.
I have the "non-usb-version" (i think it has some other differences as well) of it (NT1A) and that is a very good price/quality ratio, imho.
Doesn't sound like a Telefunken but still very usable: it doesn't pick up much else than it should, the SNR is very high and the input sensitivity is quite linear and straight. Very happy with that one. The accessories are quite high quality, too and the pricetag of 180 EUR is quite acceptable.
What a weird website. Why is this microphone hated so much? All the listed alternatives are far more expensive, except for the ATR-2100x which looks awful. And according to the page itself, doesn't have a good built-in pop filter.
We only have Blue Yeti's at work, the sound is fine, they look great on camera, they're not overly expensive, they have an audio output for testing, they can be screwed into any microphone stand.
The arguments are also, weird. The Yeti is a condenser micprohone, but that is typically the chosen type of microphone for podcasting. They tend to be more sensitive, but the yet does have a cardioide mode (and three other modes). And if you are recording a podcast maybe just treat the room instead if it poses an issue? Another argument is "meh" quality compared to alternatives, but the page does not really list comparable alternatives. The third argument just states that people use it wrong...
I personally have a Blue Snowball, it has a cardiode mode with a -10db pad. Thanks to the pad it works perfect in my untreated room, without any software. It comes with an omni and cardiode mode, can fit onto any stand and comes with its own highly adjustable metal stand. It looks great and is cheaper than all the alternatives shown on the page.
The Neumann isn't any more accurate or easier to work with. People use them because it gives you "podcaster" voice, or even earlier "NPR" voice.
I have a buddy that has a podcast and when he switched to the venerable Neumann U87 his voice became a little richer, more bassy and no longer sounded like his actual voice.
If anything, the SM7b is way more podcaster voice than a u87. People get them and get as close to them as humanly possible on every podcast and twitch stream and YouTube video ever. I would say the Neumann is definitely more accurate, but probably to a fault. The extra detail is going to reveal a lot that the average person in an untreated room at home is not going to like very much. It’s only going to be more bass heavy if people try to eat it the same way do a dynamic.
The SM7 series is one of those things that'll still exist after nuclear war right along side the cockroaches. They are battle tested and proven to pretty much be indestructible.
But the Neumanns were never meant to be used in anything other than in a white glove style studio usage. The SM57s were built like a tank and have been battle tested and found to be true. I'm pretty sure they could withstand being run over by a tank. Your Neumann would probably fall apart if you stared at it in a disapproving manner.
I've owned two Logitech webcams over the years, and both of them have a built-in mic with pretty excellent quality for speech/calls. If work meetings are your primary use case, don't overlook what you might already have sitting there.
I happen to also have a Yeti sitting on my desk, but I've fallen out of using it since it has a habit of disappearing after my computer suspends/wakes until I replug the USB cable.
> It’s a condenser microphone and is less forgiving in un-treated rooms.
Tons of people use condenser microphones without any problems and that doesn't make it bad.
> Quality is meh compared to everything else in it’s category.
What is "meh"? It doesn't give any comparisons, I've listened to a few tests of it and it sounds fine?
> It comes with a built in stand and people just put it on their desk instead of getting it close to their mouth and using it like an actual microphone.
Again, I've listened to people testing it and it sounds fine on a desk? And the mic itself is bad because of people not using it properly...?
The mic is fine for ~$80 and the alternatives listed are pretty stupid too?
The "best replacement" is $250 so significantly more expensive and the "budget option" also comes with a stand... so it's bad too then? And well, the last option is $400+$145+$135=$680
Eh, I think this is overstating the case for the typical user (Zoom or gaming rather than something like podcasting).
The sound quality is more than acceptable, even when placed relatively far away from the speaker, for Zoom meetings. It will be night and day compared to a laptop microphone or AirPods (although this is true even with cheaper USB headsets). Unlike the other recommended non-headset microphones, you don't need a special stand or to ensure you're very close to the microphone. In terms of aesthetics, you also don't have to have a large microphone in your face on camera. Sure, this is the norm on Twitch, but every time I've been on a Zoom call with someone with this setup it's always at least a little awkward.
I also find the speakers in a lot of USB headsets to be either not the best or uncomfortable. I use a separate output-only headset and a Yeti as my input and this works well enough for me.
I find the microphone to have one of the most convenient hardware mute buttons of similarly priced options. Of course, mics with more intelligent muting may reduce your need to mute so often, but I personally prefer to have 100% control over this and not rely on software. One of my biggest pet peeves about all teleconferencing software is they give you almost no feedback on your sound quality and what's coming through in the background. I'd rather control that than the software doing something wrong.
Big picture, though, is to use any form of external microphone and headset rather than laptops + speakers. Even a cheap $15 headset is going to be a much better experience for everyone else on the call. Better sound quality from you and less echo (yes, software tries to take care of this, but in practice I've found this highly unreliable on the other ends of Zoom, Teams, Discord, etc. calls).
The Blue Yeti is a really good mic. But it's not a really good mic for everybody.
I've been part of podcasting communities for years, and I understand why the site's creator made this — he did it because a surprisingly large percentage of podcasters (his customers) know very little about audio recording and production.
Like, you can't believe how many podcasters will buy a Yeti and then speak into the tip.
By cheapest alternative, do you mean the ATR-2100x recommended as the budget option? I'm in the US and searching Google shows $80+ for the Blue Yeti and $30+ for the ATR-2100x
Huh, I remember these things being the go-to microphone among my PC gaming friends when I was in HS/college. They're certainly good enough for Discord calls, but in retrospect, that seems like a low bar for the price point.
During Black Friday week, I ordered a Blue Yeti, and I can say it's a huge difference compared to the microphone in my T14 ThinkPad. I work remotely, and one of my coworkers immediately noticed the difference.
Were you previously using just the laptop mic? I can’t imagine being on a group teams/skype for business call without a USB headset with a dedicated hardware mute button.
Someone will inevitably blurt my name and I have to frantically unmute myself and then mute myself again.
Unless you’re senior leadership and they never mute themselves.
I use over-ear headphones, intentionally without a microphone for multiple reasons: it is confusing for me to have both hardware and software mute, and more often than not I find myself in a situation where I think I am unmuted, but I'm not. Since I only have a software mute now, it's easier for me. I have a shortcut for it and it works perfectly fine. The second issue is my breath; I somehow tend to breathe into the microphone when it's near my mouth, which causes an annoying sound. Additionally, I prefer ultra-lightweight headsets, microphones add a bit of extra weight. As you can see, I believe I'm one of those instances where a high-quality standalone microphone actually makes sense, I suppose.
My T430 laptop has dedicated mute buttons for the speakers and microphone.
I usually use a $8 pair of earbuds from a gas station with a 3.5mm cord (which seems superior to USB for audio, relying on the integrated sound card instead of hot-plugged third-party drivers) and use the dangling microphone from the earbud.
It's a self-contained page, using just javascript without sending any data anywhere. You can take a copy of the .html file and use it locally, or host it somewhere you control.
The record and playback loop is much slicker. It outputs a spectrogram to make eyeballing the results much better. It also has a live loopback mode with delay & volume control. There is a compare mode that lets you record multiple microphone streams at once, which was crucial for me for figuring out which device was working best for nosiey environments.
The site also has great headphones and webcam tests.
It's also iirc a pretty good example of using Web Components, if anyone's interested.
I've used mictests.com but grew frustrated with the narrow somewhat dated experience, and was having trouble effectively getting ready for meetings from cafes. I highly recommend https://webcammictest.com/check-mic.html instead.
As I understand, this site just records and plays back your voice?
I remember there was a different website that performed tests on different microphones and you can hear how different instruments and vocals sound when recorded before buying.
Audio-Technica ATR2100x, bought it for Zoom during the pandemic, very pleased. If you're in the market for an inexpensive upgrade, read the reviews for this. You will probably want to add a pop filter, even a very basic one makes a big difference. I use mine with a boom arm clamped to my desk.
From the privacy section on the front page: "All operations required for testing are performed by the browser and all data is stored in the user’s device memory."
Didn't find any explanation nor rank 1 yet. Checking the Reviews section, higher rating is better. Rank #246 has a Quality Rating of 5244, which was the highest I found quickly by browsing.
