New microphone for Skype calls.

[Shaqalac]

Hi LTT.

 

I just bought a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 80 Ohm headphones and as most of you probably no it doesn't has a microphone. These headphones will replace my Roccat Kave 5.1. As far as I know and have heard the microphone is average, probably the best way to describe it without insulting it.

 

As I'm skyping with my friends up to several hours every day I need a new microphone to continue this but I really don't have a clue of what to get. I'm not a streamer and I'm not a youtuber, so I don't need a microphone of insane quality. I am thinking of getting somewhat of a good microphone to give my friends a pleasant experience when we are on Skype. Maybe I'll do some streaming for fun, so it wouldn't hurt to have a decent microphone.

 

I'm not looking for some cheap $5 solution, I hate the fact that I have to replace that within a short period of time, either because the sound quality is pure **** or that the product itself is of poor quality.

 

As it is right now I don't have any preferences of it should be a microphones there's mounted to the headphones or it's one standing on my desk.

 

Price range you might ask?

Well I'm thinking a maximum of $100 but if you suggest a solution that expensive please include some good points of why it's $50 better than a $50 solution.

 

Cheers Shaqalac.

[Panda of the Shadow]

Blue snowball because it's small looks good and it is pretty mutch the best thing under 100$ since sliced bread. 

[ZetZet]

Blue snowball

[TheBreaker]

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones-Yeti-USB-Microphone/dp/B002VA464S Highly regarded as the best consumer grade mic. And trust me, from experience,it is. If you want something a bit cheaper, the Blue Snowball would do. 

[DoubleY]

Blue Snowball is the way to go

[Sernyhough]

Samson Meteor has not disappointed me. :lol:

[PillowSmoke]

Yup blue snowball.

[ZetZet]

Samson Meteor has not disappointed me. :lol:

Does not look much better than snowball and it's more expensive. But yeah that would do to.  :lol:

[PillowSmoke]

Samson Meteor has not disappointed me. :lol:

 

Oh you have one too? ME TOO!

[PillowSmoke]

Does not look much better than snowball and it's more expensive. But yeah that would do to.  :lol:

 

It does have a large diaphragm though.  

[MayflowerElectronics]

Blue snowball because it's small looks good and it is pretty mutch the best thing under 100$ since sliced bread. 

 

 

Blue snowball

 

 

Blue Snowball is the way to go

 

 

Yup blue snowball.

 

Snowflake*

[Panda of the Shadow]

Snowflake*

Ball(s). couldn't resist. 

[PillowSmoke]

Snowflake*

 

Small, cheap, good quality, and also quite portable. 

[Shaqalac]

Blue snowball because it's small looks good and it is pretty mutch the best thing under 100$ since sliced bread. 

Blue snowball

Blue Snowball is the way to go

Yup blue snowball.

It looks pretty one sided so far.

I've tried to look for places where I'll be able to buy this in Denmark and surprisingly enough the cheapest place I could find was Apple.com at $99.

I do still have a couple of questions for it before I make my decision.

 

• Will this be a microphone that I can have for as long as I want, as long as I don't throw it like a softball. I short terms is it durable?
• Will the microphone pick up the noise from my keyboard when I'm typing or does it depends a lot of the placement of the microphone and keyboard?
• Anything else I should consider before making a decision?

 

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones-Yeti-USB-Microphone/dp/B002VA464S Highly regarded as the best consumer grade mic. And trust me, from experience,it is. If you want something a bit cheaper, the Blue Snowball would do. 

In Denmark that is a $200 microphone, which is way above what I'm willing to pay to give my friends a good Skype experience. I can agree to $100 if it's a long termed solution.

 

 

I rather buy something nice once, instead of buying crap equipment several times. I've had too many bad experiences with this to do it once more.

[PillowSmoke]

 

 

It looks pretty one sided so far.

I've tried to look for places where I'll be able to buy this in Denmark and surprisingly enough the cheapest place I could find was Apple.com at $99.

I do still have a couple of questions for it before I make my decision.

 

• Will this be a microphone that I can have for as long as I want, as long as I don't throw it like a softball. I short terms is it durable?
• Will the microphone pick up the noise from my keyboard when I'm typing or does it depends a lot of the placement of the microphone and keyboard?
• Anything else I should consider before making a decision?

 

In Denmark that is a $200 microphone, which is way above what I'm willing to pay to give my friends a good Skype experience. I can agree to $100 if it's a long termed solution.

 

 

I rather buy something nice once, instead of buying crap equipment several times. I've had too many bad experiences with this to do it once more.

 

 

1. Yea you can have it as long as you want, it is kinda durable yes. I believe it's made out of aluminum maybe...

2.Uh depending on how you position it, and how far you have it away from your keyboard. Also the higher the gain on the microphone the louder you're going to hear the typing.

3. Uh not really. 

[ShearMe]

Blue Microphones are often recommended because in 'Murica they're relatively cheap. HOWEVER, in Europe this is not so, and there are surely better choices.

Here's a mic + all the accessories for less than the snowball: http://www.thomann.de/fi/the_tbone_sc440_usb_podcast_bundle_02.htm

[Shaqalac]

1. Yea you can have it as long as you want, it is kinda durable yes. I believe it's made out of aluminum maybe...

2.Uh depending on how you position it, and how far you have it away from your keyboard. Also the higher the gain on the microphone the louder you're going to hear the typing.

3. Uh not really. 

1. That's essential for this microphone purchase. I don't want to buy a new microphone for many years after this one.
2. Do you know what the optimal position is for the Blue Snowball to minimize the noise of your mechanical keyboard and background noise in general?

 

Blue Microphones are often recommended because in 'Murica they're relatively cheap. HOWEVER, in Europe this is not so, and there are surely better choices.

Here's a mic + all the accessories for less than the snowball: http://www.thomann.de/fi/the_tbone_sc440_usb_podcast_bundle_02.htm

The microphone you link in particular is more expensive than the Blue Snowball, it comes at $123, whereas the Blue Snowball is available at $108 including shipping.

Besides from the price it looks like a good option but I'm not really a fan of the tall stand as I'm about to move to a small apartment, so I don't want to waste a lot of space on a microphone stand.

[Kaasgeelheid]

• That's essential for this microphone purchase. I don't want to buy a new microphone for many years after this one.
• Do you know what the optimal position is for the Blue Snowball to minimize the noise of your mechanical keyboard and background noise in general?

The microphone you link in particular is more expensive than the Blue Snowball, it comes at $123, whereas the Blue Snowball is available at $108 including shipping.

Besides from the price it looks like a good option but I'm not really a fan of the tall stand as I'm about to move to a small apartment, so I don't want to waste a lot of space on a microphone stand.

Just work with euro's, since you're in Denmark and coverting everything to dollars is making it quite confusing. How much is the cheapest Snowball in euro's?

And besides that, in my opinion, seriously don't spend 100 euros on a Skype solution, it's not nessecary and Skype will make the mic sound worse for others than it actually is anyway. I use the Zalman ZM-MIC1, not the most convenient, but good sound quality for the money. My friends just use the cheapest desktop mic they could find, and as long as it doesn't have alot of noise, it's all you need for Skype.

A simple video:

http://youtu.be/Y_4URYgLdW0

The 3rd one is what I was talking about. Honestly you don't need more than that for Skype.

[ShearMe]

• That's essential for this microphone purchase. I don't want to buy a new microphone for many years after this one.
• Do you know what the optimal position is for the Blue Snowball to minimize the noise of your mechanical keyboard and background noise in general?

 

The microphone you link in particular is more expensive than the Blue Snowball, it comes at $123, whereas the Blue Snowball is available at $108 including shipping.

Besides from the price it looks like a good option but I'm not really a fan of the tall stand as I'm about to move to a small apartment, so I don't want to waste a lot of space on a microphone stand.

I just picked a random full solution lower than $200 because you said that was the price of the snowball. There was plenty of cheaper options on Thomann, the Samson Meteor Mic being one: http://www.thomann.de/fi/samson_meteor.htm

Like the guy above me said, just work with Euros, and don't overspend.

[Shaqalac]

Just work with euro's, since you're in Denmark and coverting everything to dollars is making it quite confusing. How much is the cheapest Snowball in euro's?

And besides that, in my opinion, seriously don't spend 100 euros on a Skype solution, it's not nessecary and Skype will make the mic sound worse for others than it actually is anyway. I use the Zalman ZM-MIC1, not the most convenient, but good sound quality for the money. My friends just use the cheapest desktop mic they could find, and as long as it doesn't have alot of noise, it's all you need for Skype.

A simple video:

http://youtu.be/Y_4URYgLdW0

The 3rd one is what I was talking about. Honestly you don't need more than that for Skype.

Well all the price tags I've mentioned in this thread have I converted to USD. I could have chosen to convert all of the prices to EUR but what ever.

 

The cheapest Blue Snowball I've been able to find is €72 from Apple.com/dk/.

 

About the Zalman ZM-MIC1, how is the sound quality of it? It looks like something that'll pick up an awful lot of background noise.

 

Do you have an eBay or Amazon link to where I can get the 3rd microphone from the video?

 

I just picked a random full solution lower than $200 because you said that was the price of the snowball. There was plenty of cheaper options on Thomann, the Samson Meteor Mic being one: http://www.thomann.de/fi/samson_meteor.htm

Like the guy above me said, just work with Euros, and don't overspend.

No, that was not the price of the Blue Snowball. The Blue Yeti is $200 or €142 but I just gave the Blue Yeti another search and found it at €115.

 

 

Like mentioned in an earlier post I'd like to give my friends a pleasant Skype experience, don't want to buy microphones over and over again due to bad quality and might want to do some streaming in the future (nothing too serious though).

 

So are the suggestions still something like the Blue Snowball or the Zalman ZM-MIC1?

[Kaasgeelheid]

Well all the price tags I've mentioned in this thread have I converted to USD. I could have chosen to convert all of the prices to EUR but what ever.

 

The cheapest Blue Snowball I've been able to find is €72 from Apple.com/dk/.

 

About the Zalman ZM-MIC1, how is the sound quality of it? It looks like something that'll pick up an awful lot of background noise.

 

Do you have an eBay or Amazon link to where I can get the 3rd microphone from the video?

 

Oh, I'm sorry, I totally forgot you guys use a different currency my bad.

 

For the Zalman ZM-MIC1 I made a small extension to attach it to my Beyerdynamics DT770 80 Ohms like a headset

 

 

The sound quality is considerably better that way than when attaching it to your headphone cord like it's meant to. Background noise is actually not that noticable, almost none, but stuff like my MX Brown keyboard is very much audible.

 

The mic in that video was just an example, my friends use a different one as well, which is as far as I know exclusive to the NL.

But just in general, any desktop mic that don't have any very bad static/background noise will do fine for Skype.

 

Both the Zalman and ofcourse the cheapo desktop mic have a plasticy build, so if you want something that will last you very long, go with the Snowball anyway. Or the T-Bone.

 

http://www.amazon.de/Speedlink-Desktop-Voice-Mikrofon-schwarz/dp/B004YEWAQK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393075285&sr=8-2&keywords=desktop+microphone

[Dudenstein]

The Yeti is a great $100 option. I have it and vouch for its quality

[PillowSmoke]

I just picked a random full solution lower than $200 because you said that was the price of the snowball. There was plenty of cheaper options on Thomann, the Samson Meteor Mic being one: http://www.thomann.de/fi/samson_meteor.htm

Like the guy above me said, just work with Euros, and don't overspend.

 

Wait... you have that mic?

[Shaqalac]

Oh, I'm sorry, I totally forgot you guys use a different currency my bad.

 

For the Zalman ZM-MIC1 I made a small extension to attach it to my Beyerdynamics DT770 80 Ohms like a headset

 

 

The sound quality is considerably better that way than when attaching it to your headphone cord like it's meant to. Background noise is actually not that noticable, almost none, but stuff like my MX Brown keyboard is very much audible.

Well, we are a part of the EU we just use the currency EUR but our currency (DKK) is bound to the EUR.

 

Anyways, I'm sure your solution works fine but it's not what I'd call elegant. Is it just attached to the headphones with a Velcro strip?

 

 

The mic in that video was just an example, my friends use a different one as well, which is as far as I know exclusive to the NL.

But just in general, any desktop mic that don't have any very bad static/background noise will do fine for Skype.

 

Both the Zalman and ofcourse the cheapo desktop mic have a plasticy build, so if you want something that will last you very long, go with the Snowball anyway. Or the T-Bone.

 

Found it on a Danish website, here.

Even though that microphone comes at €14 I most say I'm still considering the Blue Snowball.

 

The Yeti is a great $100 option. I have it and vouch for its quality

Please read my previous posts, it's a bit more expensive than $100. In Denmark that's a €115 ~ $158 microphone.

http://www.amazon.de/Speedlink-Desktop-Voice-Mikrofon-schwarz/dp/B004YEWAQK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393075285&sr=8-2&keywords=desktop+microphone

[Kaasgeelheid]

Found it on a Danish website, here.

Even though that microphone comes at €14 I most say I'm still considering the Blue Snowball.

 

Actually yesterday I had my first hands-on with a Blue Snowball, it is very well build, you will only break it if you try. So if you are fine with spending that much, go ahead.

I just wanted to make sure you knew it isn't the only option.