Why You Can Trust CNET This mic is hot: Get a Blue Yeti USB microphone for just $90
The gold standard for YouTube and podcasting is currently $40 off.
There's no question that your choice of microphone has an enormous impact on the quality of your recording. As someone who's co-hosted a half-dozen podcasts in the last decade, I've heard the good, the bad and ugly with my own ears on many occasions. And I remember the dramatic increase in sound quality the day I starting using a Blue Yeti. Right now, this iconic mic is $40 off at Amazon -- you can get the Blue Yeti USB mic for $90. While the Yeti is available in a slew of cool colors, most of the jazzy colors set you back $130. If you want to get it for $90, you'll need to like gray.
Color aside, not only is the Blue Yeti a high-quality mic, but visually, it also makes a bit of a statement. Mounted on what looks like the sort of old-timey stand you'd find in a 1940s radio studio, weighing a crazy three pounds and standing a foot high, it really looks the part. There are headphone and USB ports on the bottom and a headphone volume on the front, along with a mute button that does double duty as a power light to let you know the mic is plugged into a USB port and possibly "hot."
Around back, you can control the gain and choose one of the mic's four pickup modes, each intended for a different recording style, such as cardioid for single speakers, stereo for music recording or bidirectional for two-person interviews.
Bottom line: There's a reason this mic appears so often on YouTube and is the go-to mic for podcasters. It's a good value even at full price, so you might want to snag it at this low price while you can. While it drops to this price on Amazon occasionally, we've never seen it priced lower.
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