MTG: The £17 Microphone Test. How Much Kit Do You Actually Need?
Watch the original hands-on comparison here: The £17 Microphone Test
There is a point in every new content project where you stop making content and start buying equipment to make content.
You need a better camera. Then a better microphone. Then another microphone. Then something to plug the microphones into. Then something to show you what the microphones are doing.
Before long, you have spent a small fortune and still have not recorded anything.
That was the question behind my latest studio test: if you are starting a YouTube channel, podcast or social-media video, how much kit do you actually need?
I compared five options:
- The Shure SM7B studio microphones
- The DJI Mic 2 with the DJI Osmo Pocket 4
- The Fifine K669B
- The iPhone 17 Pro with no external microphone
- The wider Sony-camera and RØDECaster studio setup
This is not an independent laboratory test. It is my own hands-on comparison in the studio, using the equipment I have available and listening to the results for myself.
MTG: The four things that matter
When we started building the channel, I had four things in mind.
The first was content. That is the obvious one, although it took me a while to work out what I actually wanted to say and how comfortable I was saying it to a camera.
The other three were:
- Lighting
- Sound
- Video quality
I am happy with the Sony ZV-E10 II cameras we settled on. I am also happy with the lighting setup I showed in the previous video.
That left sound.
And this is where things become slightly uncomfortable, because we may have fallen for some of the kit hype ourselves.
The question is not whether expensive equipment can be good. It is whether you need it before you begin.
MTG: The Shure SM7B setup
We started with two Shure SM7B microphones. In the video, I refer to them as costing £399 each.
They are widely used on podcasts and larger channels, and, in my experience, they produce the best sound of the options I tested.
But they also come with more equipment and more friction.
Our studio setup involves the Sony cameras, the RØDECaster equipment and the rest of the hardware needed to manage the sound and the picture. It works, but it is not exactly grab-and-go.
That matters.
If you have to switch on several things, connect several things and check several things before you can speak, there is a chance you will decide to do it tomorrow.
Tomorrow is a surprisingly dangerous place for a YouTube channel.
In my ranking from this test, the Shure microphones came first for sound quality. That is my conclusion from this comparison, not a universal ruling on every recording environment.
MTG: The £17 Fifine K669B
The budget option was the Fifine K669B.
I bought it for £17, which creates a fairly obvious question: can two of them at £34 replace two Shure microphones costing £800 or more, once you include the additional hardware?
The short answer from my test was no.
The Fifine did not get anywhere near the quality of the Shure SM7B. That is useful to know, even if it is not the bargain result we might have hoped for.
The microphone also needed connecting to the MacBook Air rather than running through the main studio setup. I then overlaid that sound onto the video recorded on the Sony cameras.
So, there was a little more messing around involved, which brings us back to the larger question. A cheap microphone is not automatically the best choice simply because it is cheap.
It may be entirely suitable for some people. It may be enough to get started. But in this particular comparison, the Fifine came last.
That does not make it universally poor. It means that, in my test, it did not provide the result I wanted beside the more expensive alternatives.
The £17 question is useful because it separates a low price from a genuinely practical solution.
MTG: The DJI Mic 2 and Osmo Pocket 4
This was the surprise.
I had already noticed that the audio from the DJI Mic 2, clipped to my shirt and used with the DJI Osmo Pocket 4, sounded almost as good as the Shure microphones.
So I wanted to test it properly.
The DJI combination came surprisingly close to the Shure sound in my comparison, while also providing a much simpler video setup. There is less equipment to arrange and less resistance between having an idea and recording it.
That makes a real difference.
My conclusion from this test was that the DJI Mic 2 with the Osmo Pocket 4 is the sensible day-to-day recommendation for me. Not because it is better than the Shure in every possible situation, but because it gives me a very strong balance of sound quality, video quality and ease of use.
The best kit is not always the kit with the highest specification. Sometimes it is the kit you can pick up quickly and use before your enthusiasm disappears.
MTG: What about the iPhone 17 Pro?
I expected the iPhone 17 Pro to perform well.
It is the kind of device many people already have, and it removes a lot of barriers. There is no separate camera setup to build. No external microphone was connected for this part of the test. I simply recorded using the phone itself.
It was useful. It was certainly good enough to be an entry point.
However, in my comparison, it fell short of the DJI Mic 2 and Osmo Pocket 4 combination. The DJI produced the result I preferred, particularly when considering both the sound and the video.
That does not make the iPhone a bad starting point. In fact, if you are dipping your toe into video before committing to additional equipment, the iPhone can get you moving.
You will need to think about background noise and where you are recording, but those are sensible considerations for any setup.
The important thing is not to wait until everything is perfect.
Starting with the equipment already in front of you may be more useful than waiting for the perfect studio.
MTG: My ranking from this test
Based on my own recording and listening, I ranked the options as follows:
- Shure SM7B: best sound quality in my test
- DJI Mic 2 with the Osmo Pocket 4, surprisingly close, with much less friction
- iPhone 17 Pro without an external microphone: a useful starting point, but behind the DJI in this comparison
- Fifine K669B: inexpensive, but not close to the Shure result in my test
The wider Sony-camera and RØDECaster setup is the studio system behind the comparison. It gives us control, but it also illustrates the amount of equipment that can gather around a simple idea.
For day-to-day use, I would choose the DJI setup.
That is my recommendation from this particular test. You may hear the results differently, which is why the original video is worth watching rather than simply accepting my ranking.
MTG: So, what do you actually need?
If you are starting a YouTube channel, podcast or social-media video, I would focus on the four pillars:
- Content: something useful, interesting or entertaining to say
- Lighting: enough light to make the image clear
- Sound: speech that people can comfortably listen to
- Video quality: a picture that supports the content rather than distracting from it
You do not necessarily need two broadcast microphones, several cameras and a full control system before you record your first piece.
Reducing friction makes you more likely to start recording. That may be the most important result from this whole comparison.
The Shure remains first for sound quality in my test. The DJI Mic 2 with the Osmo Pocket 4 comes close enough, while being considerably easier for regular use. The iPhone is a perfectly reasonable place to begin. The Fifine did not deliver the result I hoped for, but it still answered the question.
And that is the point of testing the kit rather than guessing.
Listen to the samples in the original video on YouTube before choosing equipment for yourself. This is Andrew’s hands-on comparison, not a universal buying guide. Your room, your voice, your recording style and your tolerance for cables may all change the answer.
Stop waiting for the perfect kit to start recording.
You may already have enough.
if anything I've said today struck a chord with you and you'd like a chat or if you have a particular challenge with energy, power & infrastructure, business generally or you might like to use the studio, drop me an email at andrew@aelhawley.com - if you've watched the video version of this blog you can drop a comment below and, I think I'm supposed to say like and subscribe but I won't. See you on Sunday in the field.. that to be clear, isnt my garden.