Audio-TechnicaAT2020 Cardioid Condenser Studio XLR Microphone, Ideal for Project/Home Studio Applications

I have to say I am SHOCKED at how good the quality is for the price on this microphone. Background : I don't work in "the business" or anything. I am a bit of an audiophile (I know good sound when I hear it), but am admittedly NO expert on these things. At one point in my life, I was an on-air voice, and my father was life-long on air. I know a fair amount about audio quality. That said, I never made it my career as my dad did. And so I know more than the average person, but FAR less than the experts. I do have a high-end Neumann, but as I don't have day-to-day need of these things, that requires a bit more preparation to use. I wanted something a little easier to deal with.I have to say I was VERY PLEASANTLY impressed with this microphone and without need of any additional amplifier.Included shock mount isn't super robust, but also not cheap plastic or anything. Definitely serviceable. It does the job nicely.I do not have a "quiet room" ... just my office with a laundry room not that far down the hall. For my test, the microphone did pick up some background from the laundry room, but that was as expected, and to be honest, FAR better than it could have been for a condenser. Overall sound quality was buttery. I'm not that great explaining tonal profiles. I'll leave that to someone that knows those things. But my baritone voice came very cleanly. Microphone picks up nice bass notes, if you have a higher pitched voice, you may want to see someone's review that more aligns with yours.No real setup required on my Windows 11 PC. Plugged it in, went to sound settings and set "Microphone 2020" as the active profile to use, and boom it worked. I did have to bump up the input volume on my PC, it defaults to 50% which was ludicrously low leveling. Excellent product. I LOVE THIS THING.

IM SO SORRY BUT THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE MIC EVER UNLESS I UPGRADE because this mic is so POWERFUL and I mean this mic could pick up the sounds of ants talking. I've never been exposed to such a powerful mic. Yes like they said YOU GOTTA TURN YOUR GAIN UP but once you get that to the level you want THERE IS NOTHING THIS MIC WONT PICK UP. I could leave this mic laying in the livingroom and still hear everything its picking up from the bedroom even if a bug walked across the bed this mic is sure to pick up that frequency. I've used this mic to PROFESSIONALLY RECORD MY OWN MUSIC and the way it makes me sound is so great its pleasing to my ears and CRYSTAL CLEAR. I love the power of this mic and I highly recommend it and will be purchasing another to have as a BACK UP. Just make sure when you are using it to turn on your PHANTOM POWER. This mic requires 48V or what most know as PHANTOM POWER to work correctly as stated. So other then that this is a great product and if you dont get it your missing out. I think everyone doing something professionally should have at least this mic. ENJOY

I bought this mic after listening to many very clean audio demos comparing this and the Blue Yeti.I've bought many usb and submini jack mics in the same price range, and all suffered from obvious hiss or hum. This mic has none of that. In fact, it's impossible to get my room quiet enough to hear any hiss at all, even wrapped in a thick foam pillow. Even with my PC under my desk, running with fans on minimum, I could still hear some mechanical noise somewhere. It turned out to be a battery powered clock that I normally can't hear! Simply turning down the gain in Windows by 25% got rid of that, and now I only hear clear, rich vocals when recording.The build feels very solid. It's heavy, milled out of aluminum. It has a built in DAC to send the USB signal out to your PC without investing in an external XLR interface, and a headphone out jack to monitor the mic with zero latency.You can mix the mic output with PC audio for gaming or streaming, but you won't be listening to the final audio mix unless you turn it all the way to the "Com" side and monitor the mic through your PC. The headphone jack shows up in Windows as a system output, so you can use it like any other headphone jack.Be warned though, you'll need to remove any PC or USB drives from the desk you mount this on unless you have a good vibration damping mount. I have a simple mic arm, and was picking up mechanical hum until I moved my PC to the floor.Also, this is a side-address mic, so the pickup area is directly in front, not on the end of the mic. You'll see the blue led on the pickup.This is the best mic I've ever owned, and for occasional voice work and streaming, it's more than enough. Very easy to sound like a deep-voiced movie trailer guy with this!