Sennheiser wants little introduction, however there’s an opportunity the corporate greatest for its headphones and soundbars. In the meantime, within the professional audio world, it’s maybe most well-known for its microphones – a few of which have achieved legendary status (I’ll additionally personally suggest the MK4 for podcasting to anybody who asks). Enter the corporate’s latest providing – the $130 Profile USB microphone – that goals to carry a few of that pro-audio magic to the podcasting or streaming worlds.
The corporate doesn’t make lots of USB microphones, so it’s truthful to say that the Profile is Sennheiser’s play for the creator market. The area that’s dominated proper now by the Blue Yeti or Rode’s NT-USB amongst others. Not solely is it priced equally, it presents the identical key options similar to achieve management, direct monitoring and a mute button (one thing not each USB mic has, however in all probability ought to).
One little contact that makes the Profile stand out is its built-in “tilt” mechanism. The place the Yeti and the NT-USB, for instance, may be tilted by way of their stands, the Profile may be adjusted to your most well-liked angle with out a further mount. There’s an ordinary 5/8” thread beneath for fixing to increase arms and stands. You may also purchase the Profile in a $199 bundle that comes with a devoted increase, which has its personal unique design that’s rather less imposing than rivals like Rode’s PSA1+.
Fortunately, Sennheiser has bucked the overall development of constructing podcasting/streaming mics bigger than they have to be. The Yeti ($100) is imposing (even the Nano is on the chonky facet), the NT-USB ($170) is not a lot smaller and different in style choices just like the HyperX Quadcast ($140) and even Elgato’s Wave 3 ($150) really feel massive by comparability. At $130, the Profile additionally sits on the extra reasonably priced finish amongst its rivals.
After all, no quantity of options matter if it doesn’t sound any good. Of the three mics talked about right here – which is much from exhaustive however covers two in style alternate options – the Profile most carefully resembles the Blue Yeti, which isn’t any dangerous factor given its sustained recognition. There’s a reasonably steep shelf off below 100Hz with some gentle enhancement across the 5- and 12kHz areas – the latter of which is frequent for including a few of that elusive vocal “sparkle.”
General, the sound profile may be very a lot consistent with what most streamers and podcasters might be in search of – pretty impartial with a slight enhancement within the frequencies that give most voices additional readability. Mixed with the aggressive pricing and the complete suite of achieve/combine/mute settings the Profile makes a really compelling case for itself.
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