Need High Quality Headworn Microphone for Podcasting
Oct 30, 2011 at 8:17 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 18
LINKUZZZ

LINKUZZZ

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Looking for a high quality headworm microphone for podcasting. My budget is between $100-200. I'm looking for something that fits under a pair of headphones, and has a 3.5mm mic input cable, or can be modded to use one. I'll also be using the mic for gaming, so keep that in mind when making suggestions.

I'll be using a AuzenTech X-FI Hometheater HD or ASUS Xonar Essence STX sound card, which I'll be buying today.
 
Oct 30, 2011 at 8:43 PM Post #2 of 18
Any particular reason why it needs to be headworn? You could get much better quality for the money by going with a desktop mic. In your price range, for a desktop mic I'd recommend something like an Audio-Technica ATR-2500USB ($99) or Shure PG27-USB ($199). Both connect via USB and have dedicated, high-quality mic preamps.
 
If you really need a headworn solution, then think about something like an Audio-Technica PRO 8HEx ($159), but you'll want a dedicated mic preamp to go with it.
 
Oct 31, 2011 at 10:29 PM Post #5 of 18
I'd rather not go with the mic amp option, as that just adds more cables mess.
 
The Shure W20 QTR model might be what I'm looking for maybe:
http://www.shure.com/americas/products/microphones/other/wh20-dynamic-headset-microphones
 
That model has a 1/4 phone plug, which would suggest it doesn't need a mic amp, and would go into a pc sound card. I'm I right, or do the specs suggest different?
 
I wounder if it would be better to buy a good gooseneck mic, and pay someone on head-fi to mod it into my headphone, and then do a cable sleeving job. Does anyone know a DIYer I can trust to buy the headphones, microphone, and cable sleeving material if I paypal them the money in advance? I wounder if Smeggy (Thunderpants TP1) would do it, as he is the only DIYer I know about.
 
Any good gooseneck microphone suggestions for podcasting?
 
Nov 1, 2011 at 10:56 PM Post #8 of 18
The problem is that there are not too many 3.5mm headworn mics that are particularly good as is. There's the Sennheiser ME3 EW (needs modding), along with its knockoff clone. Beyerdynamic Opus 54 should work if rewired. Technically any headworn mic that lists "1.5v-9v" voltage should work with soundcards that provide bias voltage within that range, but obviously YMMV.

Another downside to this approach is that soundcards do not preamp well at all. You'll have quite a bit of noise.

If you go for headworn mics that have XLR connectors (48v phantom powered), you'll need some sort of an interface or preamp. Emu 0404 is popular here, but any interface will do. A reasonable standalone preamp is the m-audio dmp3. With this route you'll have a lot of clean gain, as long as your interface or preamp doesn't completely suck, and you have some quite nice native options, such as the AKG c420/c520 and Shure Beta 53/54.

I had a bit of the same dilemma, but for convenience purposes I went with a broadcast headset for gaming/voice chat with decent music capability. Sennheiser, AKG, Beyerdynamics all have nice options there that are based on popular headphones here.
 
Nov 2, 2011 at 12:08 AM Post #9 of 18


Quote:
parak said:
The problem is that there are not too many 3.5mm headworn mics that are particularly good as is. There's the Sennheiser ME3 EW (needs modding), along with its knockoff clone. Beyerdynamic Opus 54 should work if rewired. Technically any headworn mic that lists "1.5v-9v" voltage should work with soundcards that provide bias voltage within that range, but obviously YMMV.

Another downside to this approach is that soundcards do not preamp well at all. You'll have quite a bit of noise.

If you go for headworn mics that have XLR connectors (48v phantom powered), you'll need some sort of an interface or preamp. Emu 0404 is popular here, but any interface will do. A reasonable standalone preamp is the m-audio dmp3. With this route you'll have a lot of clean gain, as long as your interface or preamp doesn't completely suck, and you have some quite nice native options, such as the AKG c420/c520 and Shure Beta 53/54.

I had a bit of the same dilemma, but for convenience purposes I went with a broadcast headset for gaming/voice chat with decent music capability. Sennheiser, AKG, Beyerdynamics all have nice options there that are based on popular headphones here.
Click to expand...


Interesting.
 
 
Could this be the headphone combo I'm looking for?
Sennheiser ME3 and the Andrea USB adapter: http://www.speechrecsolutions.com/microphones_sennheiser.htm
or Buddy 7G USB Sound Adapter: http://www.knowbrainer.com/NewStore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=278&idcategory=19
 
I also think I'm going with the Auzentech X-Fi Hometheater HD for my sound card as it has a stereo and balanced mode jumper for microphones.
http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_hometheater_hd.php
 
Nov 2, 2011 at 1:10 AM Post #10 of 18
In that price range you can also have a Samson Airline 77 from ebay for a little over $200, where the receiver does the preamping and would in turn go into line in on a soundcard. Or an AKG C555L + AKG MPAVL + Roland Tri Capture (or similar interface).
 
I'd just make sure that if you do go for something, that you have a way to return/resell it if needed, as it might not meet your needs for whatever reason.
 
Nov 2, 2011 at 8:31 PM Post #11 of 18
The AKG C555L + AKG MPAVL + Roland Tri-Capture  looks like an interesting combo, but why did u picked the AKG over the Shure or the Sennheiser models?  Both the Sennheiser M3 EW and the Shure W20H look like more comfortable models. Could u suggest one of those models with a the AKG MPAVL cable+ Roland Tri Capture? Would the other mics need  another cable option?
 
Also which amp unit is better for my needs in your opinion?
M-Audio Audio Buddy: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/AudioBuddy.html
E-MU 0404 USB 2.0: http://www.creative.com/emu/products/product.aspx?category=610&pid=15185
Roland Tri-Capture: http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.php?ProductId=1156&ParentId=104
 
My Needs:
-Ventrilo/Teamspeak/Mumble Voice Chat
-Voice recording for editing into videos with Sony Vegas
-Pre-recorded podcasting (streaming podcasts is a bonus)
-Least amount of cable clutter 
-Microphone set that would fit under Over Ear Heaphones without causing to much leaking
 
I think once all that's answered I can make my choice.
 
Thanks for the help.
 
Nov 2, 2011 at 11:43 PM Post #12 of 18
The C555L has rather fantastic and almost flat frequency response (for a cardioid mic), especially if you compare it to the WH20 which is all over the place. It's also extremely sensitive (35 mV/Pa!) while still having high SNR. This overall means that you won't need to crank up the gain (higher gain = more noise in preamp) as much.
 
ME3 EW doesn't seem to have much in the way of published specs, so difficult to compare against that. In terms of comfort, you'd want the slimmest profile, but you'll still have the mic boom to contend with, so you'll still probably have some sort of earcup separation, unless they're huge and soft (giggity), like the ATH-A(D) series or somesuch. You definitely don't want a large bulky thing on the side near the ear like the WH20.
 
As far as interfaces go, I read really good things about the quad capture, and tri capture seems to share some of the specifications. Roland in general is known for very stable hardware and drivers as well.
 
Also, have you seen the ModMic mentioned? Only found out about it today in another post. It's certainly no C555L though :p
 
Nov 3, 2011 at 2:29 AM Post #13 of 18
Yeah I knew about the modmic, but I'd never heard of the company. Plus I figure the mic doesn't have the quality I need. Nice for gamers with good headphones that don't really care about a really good mic. I guess u could use a really good gooseneck mic, and buy the clasp to hold it. As a mater of fact they might be giving out free clasps.
 
I think I'll go with your suggestion.
 
Nov 7, 2011 at 9:10 PM Post #14 of 18
Hey,
 
I'm going to buy the AKG C555L + AKG MPAVL + Roland Tri-Capture today or tomorrow, but I need to know if the AKG MPAVL can connect to the Roland Tri-Capture? I need to be sure as I'm putting down a lot of money for this setup. Also will the AKG MPAVL cable be long enough as the web site doesn't say?
 
Nov 8, 2011 at 10:54 AM Post #15 of 18
The AKG MPAVL adapts a mini XLR plug that's on the C555L to standard XLR, which is what the tri-capture provides along with phantom power (48V).
 
What the tri-capture provides: INPUT1 (Mic) jack (XLR type, balanced, phantom power DC 48 V, 10mA Max)
 
What the C555L manual wants (relevant portions): For 9 to 52 V universal phantom power. Plug the mini XLR connector on the microphone cable all the way into the miniXLR socket on the connecting cable of the MPA V L. Connect the MPA V L to a balanced XLR microphone input with phantom power and switch the phantom power on.
 
As a side note, they're really charging too much for it since C555L is already natively 9-52V, so all it seems to do is adapt one plug into another, probably without any extra circuitry. Usually these types of adapters for other mics step the voltage down from 48V to <9V, but this one appears to just be a dumb adapter for $ludicrous (yay pro audio ripoff). Of course, there's not much alternative other than making your own plug for the C555L which might not work for whatever odd reason, along with voiding the warranty. /rant
 
BTW, these types of mics work great with IEMs for obvious reasons.
 
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