Thanks to Magistrate for starting this poll! We've contacted the vendor on your behalf and they've made the Shure SM7B Vocal Dynamic Microphone available.
People need to stop using the Blue Yeti and AT2020 USB. USB mics are so bad to use, so much problems and you can never hook it up to nice gear down the road. The Shure SM7B on the other hand, power hungry mic, has the quality of a condenser with all the benefits of a dynamic. I do strongly recommend getting a Cloud-Lifter CL-1 or CL-2 for this mic as he does like the extra clean gain produced by those pre-amps
USB is a cheap cop-out.
I check massdrop every day in hopes that the AT2020 will come back on sale. With streaming and youtube 'let's play'ers coming up, more and more people need high end microphones and a LOT of people are being directed towards the AT2020 and Blue Yeti. They're going to sell way more than the Samson meteor and meteorite, as long as Massdrop doesn't stiff us and to sell it for $2 below RRP.
I want to make it clear that I want the USB version, not the one with XLR.
Im seeing the at2020 usb very high up in two different polls here on massdrop, would love to see it on sale here. Sm78 and ev re20 are awesome mics but their price is appropriate but much higher.
The Yeti and AT2020 are targeted at project studios and prosumer level work. They are priced lower, have more features and are still excellent microphones (I dunno bout the Yeti though, seems a little bit overhyped).
These two have condenser capsules, making them more sensitive and better suited for distant use i.e. the speaker does not have to get their face into the mic, which helps with video podcasts as the mic can be situated out-of-frame. The drawback of this is that the mic is going to pick up more of the background noise in the room.
The SM7b and RE20 are in a different ballpark altogether (as their price suggests), these are hands down among the top choices for PROFESSIONAL broadcast quality, reliability and build. Plus they function well for plenty other musical applications too.
Both of these are dynamic capsule microphones and don't need phantom power supplied to them but also mean they are very low gain mics, needing a proper preamp with lots of gain. Both mics are designed to be used "up close and personal", i.e. the speaker should be almost kissing the mic so if it's a video podcast, the mic is going to be seen in the shot.
Yup the Shure SM7B is one of the greatest mics ever. Condenser mics like the Yeti just pick up too much background noise, it's set up on top of the table...without a shock mount. You are forced to buy a shock mount unless you want mechanical noise traveling to the mic. SM7B needs good clean gain though people. You need at least 60dB of gain for spoken word, this is the mic that makes you sound like the smooth talking guy on the radio.
I've been working in radio for the past 3 years and it is the broadcast industry standard is the RE20. It is pretty expensive, but its totally worth it; don't get fooled by the hype of the Yeti microphones, the RE20 is so much better.
The Yeti and AT 2020 are very popular among Twitch streamers and YouTubers because they have very good sound quality for the price you pay. Not everybody wants to pay $300+ on something they don't know whether will work out or not. Plus, the difference between the sound quality of a Yeti/2020 and a broadcast studio mic will be minimal once you consider the lossy audio compression used by YouTube and Twitch plus the quality of headphones the average viewer will be using.
But this poll is for broadcast studio quality mics, I'm not sure why people bother adding mics like the Yeti and AT 2020. There's no need since those mics are winning on some other popular polls and they're clearly not up to standard to real broadcast folks such as yourself.
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