C01U Pro

After much deliberation looking for a decent USB condenser mic for voice work, I went for this mic. I definitely don't regret it! My use case is using it as a vocal mic for recording podcasts and VoIP (Skype), at my desk at home, with a sprung boom arm, shock mount and pop sheild. The supercardoid pattern does a good job of rejecting sound off of centre. The capsule is very sensitive, and renders vocals with little colouration. In fact if anything it's a bit too sensitive! The gain is controlled via the sound driver on the computer, and I've found it need to be set very low (7-10%) for doing close mic vocal work. One slightly odd thing - if you have the volume set to less than about 5, some slightly weird gating goes under a certain threshold (about -50dB) - mostly not audible but if you're going to compress the recording you might hear bursts of noise. Turn the gain up to 7 or above and that seems to go away (at least, there's consistent background noise instead of weird gate-y background noise). Signal to noise is pretty good, too, and it sounds like the pre-amp is pretty decent, about as good as I would expect for a USB powered in-mic preamp. Unfortunately as it has no XLR output there's not the option to use an external pre and/or mixer, so you're slightly limited there. But really if that's the sort of thing you want to do, you really want to spend a bit more getting a standard condenser and a separate preamp (and/or USB interface). Bass tip up (proximity effect) is quite marked - you get a good boost any closer than about 15cm away. Fantastic for vocals, but if you're looking to record musical instruments you'll need to give it plenty of space to prevent the sound getting muddy (esp. miking the sound hole of an acoustic guitar). The built in windshield is fairly good, but I'm glad I invested in a proper pop shield for close vocal work. The build quality is great - very solid feeling, the bicolour LED indicator is bright enough to see without being blinding (like the fashionable ultra-bright blue LEDs you often see!). The headphone socket is very solid, no fear of breaking it with a tug on the lead. The USB socket feels very solid too - although unlike an XLR it's not locking - so you bear that in mind. The stand which it comes with does feel solid, and the mic does stay steady on it, seems a bit small for the weight - but maybe that's just preference. I'm using this with the shock mount (Samson SP01), which is pretty good quality too. The only slight niggle is that if you want headphones plugged in at the same time as using the shock mount, the headphone jack will interfere with the metalwork - easily solved if you rotate the mic around a little bit in the shock mount, but a bit annoying nonetheless. Also worth mentioning that if you have headphones connected to the mic, they're clearly not going to be isolated by the shock mount so you may need to be a tad careful with the headphone lead to stop it picking up handling noise. What would be nice is a carry case of some sort that fits the mic, USB lead and mini tripod stand - which isn't included. For a low cost mic, it's great value and might be suitable for a home studio or even a professional voiceover booth on a tight budget.

For the time that I had this microphone, i had absolutely no issues with it I was skeptical about buying it, due to some reviews. However, none of these turned out to be true and those people must have been unlucky. Though the colours on the pictures show a hint of gold, that is almost invisible on the actual mic, which I personally like. The tripod doesn't tip over or anything, even though the mic is pretty hefty. If i were to point out a problem, it would be nitpicking, but here they are Cons: The cable is short. Though it reaches perfectly behind my desk and to my pc, it would have troubles with a boom arm. However, for this price, that flaw is negligible. Pros: 1 - Price. It's the cheapest high quality mic you'll get 2 - Fully metal, making it seem very high quality 3 - Headphone jack for 0 latency monitoring 4 - Comes with an adapter to fit different stands 5 - Plug and play; no sofware required, which makes it work perfectly fine with a PS4. I am not sure about Xbox though. Should you buy it? Absolutely yes, if you're looking for a cheap, high quality mic.

Don't have much experience with mics so can't really compare it to anything, but I'm enjoying using it. Well-made, sturdy, good dynamic range, it's a bit bass-heavy for my guitar but that's an easy fix in Audacity and obviously it's better to have too much dynamics than too little. There's a -fairly- significant amount of background noise which is noticeable when I'm not playing/singing/talking and is trickier to fix non-destructively, but overall I'm very happy with it so far. The headphone jack for live monitoring is a nice touch. I'll update this if I have any problems in the next 6 months.

I researched the many USB mics available before committing to this one, and I'm glad I chose the C01U. It's very well built, with a good weight and sounds amazing. I'm a singer songwriter using this mic to record demos to my iPad. You'll need to experiment with positioning but once you found the sweet spot the results are excellent. I position the mic on its stand on a table about two feet from the guitar, and it picks up the nuances of my playing and my vocals with ease. It delivers a consistent sound with loud passages sounding full and rich and the quieter parts clear and detailed. I've recorded into Audacity on my MacBook Pro, and also into GarageBand on my iPad mini. The mic doesn't require any additional power other than that provided by the iPad or laptop. I'm so pleased with this brilliant mic and would have no hesitation recommending it to anybody looking to make high quality recordings of their music.

Excellent quality

I did a lot of research before buying this mic. It came out time and again as by far the best option at its price point. Amazon reviewers, bloggers and audio magazine reviewers all give it their endorsement. Took the plunge and gotta say I have not been disappointed. I plug it directly into my iMac to Garageband. Then I add the results to give quality sound to videos I make of myself singing with acoustic guitar. With a little careful placement you can record both guitar and voice at good relative levels. Recording just guitar or just voice is certainly very easy indeed. For acoustic guitar it picks up wonderfully from between 6 and 12 inches away. Experiment by pointing it at the neck join, the soundhole or behind the bridge for differing tones. Positioned just above the guitar body and tilting down slightly is a good spot to record guitar and vocal together. I've been a gigging musician so I have proper mic stands which is what I use it with. The little tripod stand it comes with seems good though, especially if you are going to put it on a desk to speak into. Put it on a chair and its fine for picking up a guitar, but obviously life is easier with a full size mic stand. I'm using it at home in a non-soundproofed room. Cars go by outside, dogs bark in the distance etc. So I find it especially useful that it picks up whats going on from a few inches to a few fee away, but does not pick up too much background noise. I often use it in a room with an aquarium whose filter makes a small tinkling sound. The mic doesn't pick this up but captures whatever I am doing within its orbit quite beautifully. There is the option to buy accessories such as a pop screen and an anti-vibration stand but I have really not found these to be necessary. It feels and looks good. Sounds shallow to say it but the mic is visible in some of my vids and looks proper. Some other mics can look a bit gimmicky. Just about the only bad thing I can think of to say about this microphine is that the supplied lead could be a bit longer to give a bit more flexibility. But a cheap extention cable solves that. Yes there are better mics out there, but they cost a lot more. The market is getting very crowded in the sub £75 zone. I think this model totally dominates that territory and anyone looking to spend that kinda cash should be giving it serious consideration.

The recording quality is really poor and there is a constant hiss. With more technical ability you might be able to get rid of it but I bought a cheaper headset that has much better sound quality. Sadly, by the time I figured out the software to make it work on my Mac, the return window had passed.

Love it! Love it! Love it! Glad I bought this version. As I have the old version. Wanted to buy a new brand, but you can't go wrong with Samson. Amazing mic!!! Sound quality is amazing.. Now I just love recording ! Comes with stand and cable!! Amazing! Worth every penny and last for years! Thanks