A bit of background, I used to work in broadcasting (radio) and have been absolutely spoiled by high end broadcast quality mics (Electrovoice mics) I *know* what I should sound like on a mic (how true to real is the sound)For an $80 mic, I was blown away. I sounded true on it when playing back a recording. My husband, who was used to hearing me through my headset mic in games, was blown away when my computer insisted on using the MXL for Discord rather than the headset. He said it was like I was right his office with him. He's now really jealous and wants his own :)The mic is really well tuned for the frequency of human voice, and even the highs of female voices. Its delivering a very true sound. For normal speaking, it's certainly hitting perfectly. It's warm, natural, and full, picking up all the nuances.Better even is the true cardiod of the pickup. I noticed it was picking up very little background noise. We live on a busy street, lots of traffic, 2 blocks from a hospital (ambulance sirens constantly), and 2 miles from a busy airport take off runway (those jets are pretty low when they pass over our house). Now, when I was recording, by a miracle no ambulances or airplanes went by, but I didn't hear the din of traffic. I noticed the faint, and I mean faint, noise of my dog scratching as she sat on the other side of my desk, I could hear her foot hitting the floor. That was it. I've had other mics that picked up absolutely every background sound and you'd swear I was sitting in the middle of the street at rush hour. The MXL picked up me wonderfully, the background? Nope.I highly recommend it for someone wanting to up their game for podcasts and voiceovers. I got a Neweer phantom power and a XLR to USB cable to plug into my laptop. With the scissor boom (I already had) that's all I needed. I would do best with a mixer, but that's off down the road for now.
