The qualifications for this list are specific to a podcaster starting out or upgrading to using a higher-quality microphone. So we’ve tested out the top USB microphones on the market today to help you choose your next podcast or streaming investment. Now that the market is full of these types of microphones, it can be difficult to understand what the best option is for your own setup. When Apple started to sell Blue’s Snowball microphone in their stores in 2005, it opened doors for independent creators to make their home recordings sound significantly better than what the consumer market had offered previously, by just plugging a microphone right into the USB port on their computer. But for a hobbyist or someone starting out in the field, there are now more options than ever to get your show up and running for a fairly low price.
You can’t just plug any microphone into your computer and start recording. For professional use, the answer is complicated. As the resident audio engineer at The Verge, I am occasionally asked what microphone one should get if they wanted to start a podcast.
