Great budget studio microphone in 2021
Your organization may be contemplating doing a podcast or creating voiceover videos with your laptop or smartphone. One of the first question I get asked a lot is what microphone should we use?
Well, there certainly are professional microphones in the $150-$200 range but not every organization has the budget for that. I’ve been testing a budget USB microphone for the past few weeks and I’ve been impressed with its features and versatility. At only about $50, the Moman EM1 microphone might be the right fit for your budget and getting started with creating better audio.
The $50 Moman EM1 costs much less than the $150 Yeti. I’ve personally used the Yeti for all my voiceover work during the past five years. The question I had is a $50 microphone any good? How does it compare to the $150 Yeti?
Features
The Moman EM1 is an all-metal, plug-and-play microphone which means there is no software to install to use it. It also comes with two connection cables: USB to USB, and USB to USB-C. This means it is quickly adaptable and versatile for use on either your laptop/computer, or smartphone. A gain knob allows you to adjust volume of the microphone directly on the microphone. A mute button let’s use mute recording. And a headphone jack is a nice feature, allowing you to monitor your recording more closely. You also get a small tabletop stand included for the microphone. A bonus is that this microphone can also be attached to a boom arm (not included) if you prefer that type of setup.
Sound quality
I’m not much of specifications guy. You can throw all the specs at me you want, but ultimately it’s the result that counts. Is a $150 mountain bike as good as a $450 mountain bike? Let me ride it on some trails and I’ll tell you. How does a $50 microphone compare to a $150 microphone? Let me record with it and listen. So I did. Honestly, the sound quality is impressive on the EM1 vs the Yeti. I noticed a little more bass and midtone with the Yeti. The EM1 had a bit more treble, but not by much. We rarely use raw audio, so after doing some minor EQ work on both tracks, the result was just as impressive. Does the $50 Moman EM1 produce audio that is less than half as a good as the $150 Yeti? Watch the video below and listen for yourself. Be sure to listen to the part of the video where I also test the EM1 microphone with the Moman RF30 Audio Reflection Filter too. This is a terrific portable solution that helps you lessen the problem of echo and reverb in some rooms, resulting in cleaner audio.
Get the microphone and/or reflection filter below
MOMAN EM1 MICROPHONE
Moman EM1 USB PC Microphone
MOMAN AUDIO REFLECTION FILTER
Moman RF30 Microphone Isolation Shield
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