Best mics under €150 judging from the male soul sample at Thomann
These five microphones I selected from going through most of the sub €150 large diaphragm mics on their site listening on the male soul dry sample through my my laptop speakers, and then ranked the below five between themselves by using a Sony MDR-XB950 (a so-so) headset listening to the same sample. A couple of mics on their site did not have the soul sample and were ignored. No mics between €119 and €150 made the list, as can be seen below:
| Rank | Name | Price | Interface | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samson G-Track Black | €105 | USB 16-bit | Gorgeous sound, even truer than the C03U, but with a bit of personality (this has a different soul sample than the others) |
| 2 | Samson C03U | €89 | USB 16-bit | Great sound, but with a weird distortion, which might be from my headphones still sounds very honest. Shines on the processed version, is best there. |
| 3 | Audio-Technica AT2020 | €89 | XLR/48V | Slightly tinny but still great |
| 4 | Superlux E205 | €38 | XLR/12-48V | sounds fantastic over laptop speakers but loses its luster in the MDR-XB950 headphones but shines again in the Sony MDRCD480 phones. As somebody said in the reviews, this mic sounds a lot better that ithas the right to. |
| 5 | the t.bone SC 1100 | €119 | XLR/48V | weird wandering sound in headphones |
Audio-Technica AT2020 USBi and AT2020 USB+ sounded worse than the XLR Audio-Technica AT2020 listed above.
Superlux E205USB sounded worse than the XLR Superlux E205 listed above.
The Rode NT-1 is good but felt too dull, but might come to life with post-processing.
The 24-bit Samson G-Track Pro did not have the sound samples.
Disclaimer: Don't rely too much on random blog posts :)
Update 2019-02-19
I have now listened through a better set of headphones (Sony MDRCD480), and I still believe the above mics are the best in their selection, but I am less sure about the order between them. I also listened to the female soul voice and the AT-2020 does the best job there.
Some between €150 and €200 that sound fine
Audio-Technica AT 2035 €154
the t.bone SCT 800 – Thomann UK €175 sounds nice