Comment by __mharrison__ | Hacker News Reader

Comment by __mharrison__ | Hacker News Reader

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I have a Blue Yeti, an AudioTechnica BPHS1 (headset), a Fifine 688 (cheap Shure SM7B competition), and a Behringer C2 (pencil mic). I have also used "professional equipment" sent from studios for me to record with.

The professional equipment sounds the best, but the audio device alone (sans mic) was $1200.

These days, I use the pencil mic with a Scarlett device. It sounds good enough for my recording needs (I post-process everything regardless). It is out of camera, and pencil mics (or shotgun) are what pros use in camera studios.

If you don't mind having a big mic on camera, the Fifine is a lot of bang for the buck. If you are a brand person, go for the Shure.

A headset is great for minimizing sound when talking with others (say for a podcast interview), but I have yet to find one that is comfortable for using all day (I'm often teaching day-long courses).

I don't think anyone is going to blow 1 month of their salary to sound better on zoom.

You can get a decent 2-in 2-out audio interface for 100€ or less. I can recommend Behringer's UMC series: https://www.thomann.de/at/behringer_u_phoria_umc204hd.htm

I have the Scarlett audio version. It works fine. However, I played around swapping my mics with the $1200 Sound Devices Pre2, and it just sounds amazing. I'm not sure what is going on inside that box. I haven't been able to justify that purchase.

I actually bought a sound card, different model. But to do recording. I don't bother to plug it for zoom calls :D

Are you referring to the $1200 audio device? Yes, that is expensive. It is meant for professional recording.

The average software salary in the US is about $10k a month. Few spend that much on audio equipment.

Why do you presume that software developers are the only ones doing zoom calls?

You’re on a software developer forum

An international forum, there's more countries than USA.

nobody suggested anything otherwise

also original post only actually recommends $100 - $200 mics, so this entire subthread has been a bumbling series of utter nonsense

I use a BPHS1, in my case I found that replacing the ear pads with 3rd party gel pads greatly improved the comfort for long meetings.

I replaced my pads with microfiber ones. The pads don't cause me pain, the top of my head hurts after 4 hours or more.

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