The design is also super-professional, an antidote to the flashy RGB colouring of some of the more popular streaming microphones out there. We particularly appreciated the miniature but sturdy tripod desktop stand, which has a small enough footprint to make it convenient for smaller work surfaces and hot-desking. There’s only a cardioid pickup pattern here, meaning its tuned for nearby vocals, and so voice recordings sound warm and vibrant, even when recorded from a foot away.
Pitched to please professional audio types rather than lure in have-a-go podcasters, the AT2020USB+ is an adaptation of one of the company’s most popular condenser mics, and makes no compromises when it comes to maintaining the brand’s impeccable reputation for quality.
So, as with all of the microphones in this list, you can connect it directly to your Mac or Windows PC without faffing around with any additional sound equipment. The Rode podcaster is a USB version of the company’s studio-grade XLR mic – the very similarly named Procaster (£135, .uk). Rode is the go-to brand for many professional podcast producers and voice-over artists, and once you use their equipment it’s not difficult to understand why. Volume control: Headphone volume control.We also enjoyed the lack of any arduous setup process for use with conferencing software. We love the classic design and small form factor of the MV5C – perfect for pretending you’re an “old timey” radio announcer – as well as the microphone’s built-in speech enhancement. No more overblown plosives or sounding like you’re trapped down a well. This makes monitoring your own voice levels easy, ensuring you hear precisely what your colleagues can hear.
It’s a portable and lightweight condenser microphone, featuring straightforward USB connectivity with a Mac or Windows PC as well as an audio jack for plugging in wired headphones.
The slick and retro-looking Shure MV5C is the ideal microphone for the home office, beefing up the audio quality of your presentations and taking your Zoom game to the next level.
The resulting sound is impeccable: clean, clear and full of detail.
Unlike the Blue yeti X (£135.15, .uk) this microphone is cardioid only, so it’s built to focus on one individual’s voice rather than recording in all directions. There’s a high-pass filter to cut out the background hum of a PC fan, automatic gain limiting and an LED peaking indicator that glows a threatening shade of red if you’re too loud. Understated for a Razer gadget, the microphone’s features are designed with gaming broadcasts in mind. So, it’s little surprise that the seiren elite microphone feels impressively premium straight out of the box. Razer is known for producing super high-quality gaming mice, keyboards and laptops for everyone from esports champs and Twitch streamers, to YouTube creators.