The Blue Yeti is a popular microphone due to the quality it offers at the $100 price
point, I’ll be giving away three of them in this video and also be comparing it against
the smaller Yeti Nano to see what the differences are.
I’ve been using my Blue Yeti microphone for over 4 years now and have created over
400 videos on the channel with it, it’s available in different models like the Pro
with higher end features but I’ve just got the most basic one here.
When I went to CES earlier in the year though the larger size of the Yeti became a problem
with how much camera gear I had in my bag, I needed something smaller and more portable
for travelling with.
While at CES I actually walked through the Blue booth and saw the Nano for the first
time, after doing some research it looked like it should do the job without sacrificing
audio quality as it’s meant to basically just be a smaller version of the original
Yeti.
Let’s start with the differences in specs, now I’m by no means an audio expert, but
we can see that for the most part they’re quite similar in terms of the microphone.
The main difference for me was the size and weight. With the stand attached we can see
that the original Yeti is clearly heavier than the smaller Nano. Generally lighter weight
is better for travel, especially when in a backpack, however personally for me the biggest
improvement was how much smaller the Nano was.
When travelling with the original Yeti I had to remove the microphone from the stand and
put the stand in my suitcase. At CES I ended up losing my suitcase for a while, I did get
it back but that would have made recording a challenge. With the Nano I was able to just
flip the microphone over and the whole thing was just able to fit in my backpack, though
I could of course remove its stand too, I just didn’t need to which was obviously
a lot more convenient, I’ve found reattaching the stand to generally be an annoying process.
Otherwise the microphones also differ a bit in features, the front the original Yeti has
a dedicated mute button and seperate volume wheel. The Nano combined the two into one,
you simply press the volume button to mute it and it will change to red, plus I just
think the glowing circle looks cooler.
The back is also a bit different, the original Yeti has a microphone sensitivity dial and
another one to change between the four modes it offers, cardioid, bidirectional, omnidirectional
and stereo. The Nano on the other hand simply has a button that you press to swap between
two modes, cardioid and omnidirectional. Personally I only ever use cardioid anyway, which is
best for sitting directly in front of it, but it is missing the bidirectional and stereo
modes offered by Yeti senior should you need those.
On the bottom both have a 3.5mm audio jack for you to listen to the microphone input
in real time, a micro USB port for running the device, and a hole for mounting.
I got the Blue Yeti Nano and took it with me on my recent trip to Computex in Taipei,
so if you want plenty of examples of sound quality you can check out my Computex 2019
videos linked in the description. Otherwise every other video on the channel has been
recorded with the original larger Blue Yeti, so you’ve got heaps of content to compare
with already.
For an absolute apples to apples comparison though let’s compare the two without any
post processing. Right now you’re listening to me talk using the original larger blue
yeti microphone. It sounds a bit different to the rest of the video which was also recorded
on the same mic, however I usually edit the audio a bit, but that has not been done here.
I’ve now swapped over to the smaller Blue Yeti Nano microphone, I’m not sure what
the difference will be at the moment as I am yet to review the recordings, basically
at this point I’m just coming up with random words to say so that you can use this as an
example. I didn’t have anyone mention the change or have any issues with my Computex
videos, so I’m guessing it’s just fine.
Personally I wasn’t really able to tell the difference, both sound good to me, I’ll
let you be the judge. If I had to pick I’d say I actually preferred the nano a little
more, but honestly I think they’re close enough so I’d just pick the smaller one
for travel.
Alright now for the give away, there are three Blue Yeti microphones to be won by three separate
people. Unfortunately it’s only open to those in Australia and New Zealand due to
shipping costs, but hey to be fair most other competitions are only open to the US and we
always miss out. If you’re in another country though you can find updated pricing for the
Yeti and Yeti Nano linked in the description, both currently go for around $100 USD.
You can find the giveaway entry page on Twitter as my pinned tweet. Don’t worry you don’t
need Twitter to find the link, just view my twitter page which is linked in the description
and you should find the competition link as the top post. The competition will run for
a week from the time this video has been posted and three winners will be contacted by email,
so use a valid address.
Overall I think the Blue Yeti microphones offer decent quality for the price point.
To be fair I haven’t tested that many other microphones and I know there are other good
options for less money, however the Yeti is what I went with 4 years ago and continue
to use to this day for all my videos as it works well. Let me know what you thought of
the differences between the two and which you’d pick down in the comments, don’t
forget to enter the giveaway if you’re eligible, and of course get subscribed for future tech
videos like this one.