red alert red alert news flash news flash news flash nobody cares about the audio equipment
that you use and you don't have to spend an arm and a leg to get good sounding audio
and that's what i want to discuss today greetings earthlings and welcome back to podcastage if that
intro did not capture your attention i don't think anything ever will but today i want to explore the
idea of diminishing returns with microphones and give you a couple of price points where i think
this law becomes very apparent and hopefully this will help you avoid spending unnecessary money
category 1 dynamic microphones first up we are on one of the most affordable microphones out there
the behringer xm 8500 this goes for 20 dollars and frankly it performs way better than it has any
right to and this is an anomaly i don't think this is standard for 20 microphones this is a standout
in this price point mike one now we are on the shure sv 100 this goes for about 30 dollars and
in my opinion this is much more in line with what you should be expecting at this price point it's
harsh it's not necessarily good sounding really bad handling noise kind of resonant just not a
great sounding microphone and now to break up the sure show now we are on the sc electronics sev7
this is a 100 microphone so we have doubled in price from the sv 200 and the sound quality in
my opinion is more than two times better than the sv 200 so you're paying twice as much
but you're getting a bit better sound okay that's the first 100 microphone let's get back to the
sure show say that five times fast it's really hard it's really hard to say that and now for
the vocal version of that microphone we are on the shure sm58 which also costs around 100 and
everybody has heard this microphone if you've listened to a podcast if you've gone to a show
this is one of the most common dynamic microphones if not the most common dynamic microphone or
maybe most common microphone i don't know but there you go 100 microphone probably
probably the most popular microphone of all time now we have increased in price by 20 we are on the
sennheiser e835 a much brighter much more detailed much more articulate sounding microphone
some might classify it as condenser-like because it does have so much more detail that is thanks
to a very big treble boost oh by the way if you don't know what a 20 increase would have been
we are at 120 dollars there you go 120 dollar microphone and this is how it sounds
now we are jumping way up now we have jumped up to 300 dollars this is the buyer dynamic m201tg
which is another instrument microphone but as you can hear i think it works outstanding on vocals
the thing that i really like about this one is it has a much more balanced sound and it does
have some nice extension into the treble and air without sounding over boosted and without sounding
harsh or unnatural there you go that's what a 300 dynamic microphone sounds like let's move
on everyone knew that i was going to include this microphone now we are on the shure sm7b this costs
around 400. i have it in neutral mode and yeah this is quite a bit more expensive than the 20
xm 8500 the reason i like this microphone is it's very smooth and it's very easy to listen to
however i do know that a lot of people dislike this microphone because they think it's just a
little bit too dark a little bit too dull and it comes across a little bit too low detail but
there you go 400 dynamic microphone now we are on the electro voice re20 which goes for around 450
so 50 bucks more than the sm7b and the thing that i like about this microphone is it does
have a bit more extension into the treble and air if you don't like how dark the sm7b sounds
you're probably going to lean more towards the re20 because it does have that airiness to it it
does have that openness to it that is lacking from the sm7b but there you go 450 bucks for a dynamic
this is what it's getting yeah all right where in the spectrum from 20 all the way up to 1 000
do i think the law of diminishing returns really kicks in for dynamics i'm sure you can guess based
on the microphone that i'm using i think that around one hundred dollars is where the law really
comes into effect when we listen to the majority of sub 100 microphones to me it was very apparent
that we were listening to affordable sub 100 dynamic microphones because they all had pretty
big flaws whether it be too much noise due to a high impedance whether it be extremely unpleasant
tones making it unlistenable or too much handling noise all of them had their drawbacks and it made
it apparent that they were affordable mics but once we get to around 100 that really opens us
up to the professional handheld dynamic microphone market and there are so many options here that no
matter what you're going to find a microphone that fits the tonal preferences for you fits the sound
profile that you're looking for that's what i was trying to say now a lot of these microphones do
still have their drawbacks some of them do sound kind of artificial some of them are pretty bad
with plosives and some suffer from handling noise as well but as long as you use them properly i
think you're able to get some really great sounds out of microphones that cost around 100 and then
when we get to the more expensive dynamics like the m201tg and up i think the biggest difference
is the tonal characteristics i think what you're getting here is a more nuanced and more balanced
sound profile so if you're in a studio you're going to benefit from that but i don't think the
majority of listeners will notice that difference and the other really big difference from the sm7b
and up is the fact that you do have built-in eq switches on all the microphones whether it be
adding a presence boost or just on the re20 you only have a high pass filter but on all three of
those higher end mics you do have some form of eq built into it and the last thing that i'll say is
when you're looking at microphones like the sm7b you're also getting the added benefit of improved
plosive protection which you aren't getting on a lot of the 100 handheld dynamics because
that's pretty brutal brutal not brutal but yeah improved plosive protection there you go that's
all i've got for dynamics let's jump to the next section category b condenser microphones
first up we are on the neewer nw 700 this goes for between 20 and 30 dollars it's an extremely
popular budget microphone but it doesn't sound amazing and one of the big drawbacks
rings like a bell very resonant and not well built 20 to 30 bucks this is what you're getting and
reasonable for the price but not going to be amazing for anyone next we are on the audio
technica at2020 this goes for around 100 and it is another extremely popular home studio microphone
as you can tell it does sound quite a bit better than the nw700 but to my ears it's just not the
most balanced it's not the smoothest sound but for a hundred dollars i really can't complain but this
is what 100 is gonna get you in the condenser side of things now we're jumping up in price quite a
bit to 270 dollars this is the rode nt1 and to my ears this just gives us a much more balanced and
detailed sound without sounding over-boosted or artificial another really big pro over the
prior microphones is the noise performance the self-noise performance in particular when you
get to this level the noise of the microphone is really negligible and just for a good measure here
is another 500 data point this is the shure ksm 32 and here's how this sounds i love this because
of how smooth it is just one of the sweetest top bends of any condenser microphones i've used
there you go 500 price point here's how it sounds 550 price jump anyone now we are at one thousand
two hundred and fifty dollars this is the austrian audio oc 81.8 to piss everybody off and this is a
multi-pattern microphone the thing that i love about this is all the features but it gives you
all that detail while maintaining a very smooth top end which is pretty rare you're just getting a
more refined sound and a bit of new technology it does allow for dual capsule output which you can
control with a plug-in in your daw in post or you can plug in a bluetooth receiver and control the
microphone from your phone so you are getting additional technology for that price jump and
why not essentially triple the price of the prior microphone now we are on the neumann hello neumann
u87ai this goes for about three thousand seven hundred dollars and this is what it sounds like
it is undeniably a great sounding microphone that does your voice absolutely zero favors
but i also think that it's undeniable that part of that price tag comes from the badge that sits
right there on the front that name but as far as sound profile goes it is outstanding and there you
go those are all the samples for the condenser microphones now let me give you my summary or
conclusion whatever it is now this was a lot more difficult for condensers because of the variance
and price condensers range from twenty dollars all the way up to an excess of ten thousand dollars
you can find twenty thousand dollar condenser microphones so finding just one price point was
extremely difficult so i had to compromise and come up with a price band where i think the law
of diminishing returns really comes into play and that price band is 250 to 500
you could make an argument that 170 with the king b or 100 with the at2020 but i think the king b2
is a bit of an outlier with the at2020 i do think it has its drawbacks with the excessive self noise
of i think 20 dba and don't even get me started on the knee were so 250 to 500. i already pointed out
the issues that i have with the knee were and the at2020 and that will tell you what kind of benefit
you're getting from upgrading to a 250 to 500 microphone but what are you getting if you buy a
microphone that exceeds that 500 price point with something like the oc 818 i think you are getting
that more refined sound quality that smoother top end as well as some really cool technology which
does take r d and you as the consumer are going to be paying for that research and development
then when we look at stuff like the neumann u87ai the telefunken elam 251 the sony c800g
you are going to be paying for that brand name but you are also paying for that unique and
identifiable sound profile and you're paying for the bragging rights because if you run a studio
people are going to want to see oh they use a u87 oh they use a c800 they have an elam 251
they have 11 000 microphone wow you're paying for that as well but it is undeniable they
sound great but you're paying a lot for that to summarize this video into about 30 seconds
i think that the law of diminishing returns really comes into play for dynamics around 100
where you have the sm58 the sev7 the e835 and a whole plethora of other handheld dynamics and for
condenser microphones i think the law really comes into effect between 250 dollars where the rode nt1
lct 440 sit and 500 where you have stuff like the shure ksm 32 you have the se-4400a in between that
you have dozens of microphones to pick from to really get the exact sound that you want
and you might be limited with features but the sound quality will be more than sufficient for
99 of applications i also want to add a couple more notes the first one being i do not think
that you need to spend 100 to 500 on a microphone in order to make content online i do not think
that's the case at all i think that people are more than capable of making content with a 20
microphone whether it be the xm 8500 or the newer nw700 you might just need to get a little bit
more creative with how you record it and how you process it to make sure that it's as listenable as
possible but i think you are more than capable of making content with affordable microphones
i'm not saying you need one what a great way to end the video just stab myself in the chin
i don't think you need 100 to 500 microphones i also don't think you need to stab yourself
with microphone quick releases idiot and secondly if you do want to spend one thousand
thirty seven hundred or twelve thousand dollars on a microphone i'm not telling you not to do that
i'm just reminding you that the vast majority of listeners will not be able to tell the difference
between a five hundred dollar microphone and a thousand dollar microphone or a one hundred
dollar microphone and a thirty seven hundred dollar microphone so just keep that in mind
when you're considering buying a really expensive microphone you should be buying it because you
enjoy it and because you want it not because you think it's gonna make your content 10 times better
and every single audience member is automatically going to love it because remember a huge amount of
your audience is likely listening to your audio through crappy cell phone speakers or through
crappy apple earbuds so they are not going to have the tools to decipher the subtle differences
between a neumann u87 and an austrian audio oc-818 or an se electronics v7 and that is it for this
video but i do have two things to point out first i did record a lot more microphone comparisons
but it made the video too long so i'm going to put all the mic comparisons on podcastage 2.
go check that out youtube.com podcastage2 or i will have the video linked in one of the corners
and secondly if you do want higher quality audio of this video i will upload that to podcastage.com
i will throw a link to the blog post in the description down below that is it i was off my
game today this was a rough one to get through it was a rough one hopefully it wasn't rough
to watch but i struggled through it anyway if you found this video fun interesting or helpful
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it really truly does help me continue to bring you these videos so until next time thank you so
much for watching thank you so much for listening i will talk to you next week bye bye i hated that