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USB studio micrphone vs XLR microphone

QueBert

QueBert

Lifer
My Best Buy has a pretty nice music instrument center in the back. I have been thinking about getting a decent level studio type condenser mic for awhile now ($100-15) Nothing super fancy but something that'll be much better than the Sony I currently have. They have an M-Audio USB that looks really nice. The guy who works there told me it was pretty good, but he recommended I get an XLR MIC as it would be worth the difference. All he could really come up with at to why I should get XLR was it was more versatile. I don't have a studio, and my PC doesn't have XLR. They did have a few inexpensive drop boxes to add XLR to any PC.

If 2 mics had the exact same internals, and one had an XLR and the other was a USB connection. Would there be any noticeable difference in the sound quality? Or any outstanding reasons for me to spend the extra $50 to get an XLR setup going?

one last question, I know condenser mics pick up everything, my PC isn't exactly loud, but it's not silent either. Having never used a condenser mic outside of a friends studio (which is totally silent) would this be a problem? I will be using it to record vocals and an instrument or 2 here and there.

 
XLR would be an analog connection and yes, more versatile. You need to send it to a pre-amp though for power and to give it a voltage level that can be recorded. USB is digital and therefore is more limited in its application. You won't need a preamp but I have a feeling quality might be compromised. I can't say for sure as I've only used XLR.

In regards to the computer...if the consdensor mic is omnidirectional then yes it will be picked up. Depends how much you care about background noise and how loud it is in comparison to your primary source.
 
As PurdueRy noted, XLR is the analog signal from the mic. Basically, the USB version of a mic contains a preamp and an analog-digital converter. With a standard XLR mic, the pre-amp and analog to digital conversion happens in a seperate, dedicated device. If you're willing to drop a little more money for a basic audio interface (something like an m-audio fasttrack usb should suffice at a minimum) you'll probably get a better quality output from the mic into your computer now and have the flexibility to use the mic with a more robust setup in the future.
 
I don't know much about mics but the XLR allows you to hook the mic to mixers of the typical industry standard that also include phantom power for the mic.

While a different application than yours, I have a Behringer EMB-8000 hooked up to a mixer, UB-802 that has phantom power. The mic uses XLR, the mixer goes to my computer using 3.5mm or 1/4 jack.

I've worked hard to make my PC very quiet for a multitude of reasons. However, being realistic, the microphone may also pick up noise from your refrigerator if you are anywhere near that. It will also pick up road noise, HVAC noise, in addition to the PC noise.
 
thanks for the reply all you guys, I think for my needs USB should be fine. If I go XLR down the road I'm sure a nice USB mic could always be useful on any computer. The XLR drop boxes are a bit more than I thought, even for the basic ones. It sounds like working on quieting my room and surroundings is going to be more more than XLR or USB 🙂
 
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