The Blue Microphone's Yeti!

The Blue Microphone's Yeti is a triple capsule microphone priced at around $149.99 (available for less money on amazon). So for the money you're going to spend on it, is it worth it?  

Well to start, I'm just going to give you 2 other options you can go with in case you aren't satisfied with the Blue Yeti, although I would be utterly shocked if you were unsatisfied with it, because it is a truly stellar device. Now the 1st other option is to go with the cheaper, $99.99 Blue Microphone's Snowball. This microphone is rather cool looking, as it resembles a snowball on a little stand, and comes in Chrome, White, and Black. Now this microphone is cheaper, and of course, its quality would obviously be worse than that of the Blue Yeti, but it does work brilliantly for podcasting, voiceovers, singing, or really anything in general, as long as your using it correctly. 

Now the 2nd, more expensive option is to go with the Blue Microphone'sYeti Pro, which will cost you a stock price of $249.99 (amazon will be your friend again for saving some money on this microphone). Now this microphone looks identical to the Yeti, except it is Black and Gold, while the Yeti is all silver and chrome. The main difference is that the Yeti has a sample rate of 48 khz, a bit rate 16 bits, and a headphone amplifier with a signal to noise of 100dB, while the Yeti Pro has a sample rate of 192 khz, a bit rate of 24 bits, and a headphone amplifier with a signal to noise of 114dB, which is quite a step up. Now the Yeti Pro also has an XLR cable, while the Yeti uses only USB. Otherwise, they have the same 3 capsules with the same polar patterns (cardioid, stereo, bidirectional, and omnidirectional), frequency response, sensitivity, impedance, power output, THD, system requirements, weight, dimensions, and max SPL. So keep in mind, if you don't have a pre-amp, you will need to buy one in order to get the XLR signal to work. So something like the Blue Microphone's Icicle could work, because it converts XLR into USB, and keeps the quality, just making it possible for your computer to read the signal. This microphone is amazing, but for the average person, it is useless, because the average person will never need the quality of this microphone. The Yeti, or even the Snowball will match mostly everyone's needs easily, and make it a fun, and enjoyable experience.

Now about the Yeti, I found it incredibly easy to use. No drivers, just plug and play. Now because this microphone is so sensitive, I found my self struggling to not make any moves. If I literally moved my mouse, it would sound like a massive earthquake passing by, and I wouldn't even hear myself move the mouse, while the microphone did. This just shows how sensitive the Yeti is. This pressures me into buying their shock mount (which I still have to buy), because I wanted to be able to move freely, and not have to constantly drive myself insanse over staying still. Now because I don't find it too comfortable to be 6 inches away from the microphone, I adjusted the gain to around 65-75%, which allows me to comfortably sit around 2-3 feet away, and the microphone still picks me up fine.

I also found it a necessity to be able to move my head left and right, and still have the microphone pick me up perfectly. It lacked a tiny bit, because I noticed when I moved my head, it picked me up slightly less, but that is still pretty awesome. The reason I need to turn my head is because in my business, I need to do voiceovers of product reviews, and I can't keep my head staring at the microphone. I have to look at my screen to see what is playing, so I can know what I have to say in order to have the audio tie into the video at the right time. So the ability to do that is marvelous.

You may be wondering if I felt that anything was slightly cheepish about the microphone. The answer is yes, yes I did. The gain knob and the headphone volume knob both shook in place (this is completely normal, EVERY Yeti and Yeti Pro have this feature unfortunately), which annoyed me at first, but then I got used to it. Actually, if you use your Yeti on a day to day basis, you don't really need to adjust the gain and volume, because if you keep it in the same setup all the time, then you shouldn't need to change the settings, unless you want to change things up a bit. Otherwise, the Yeti is constructed very sturdily, and holds together well.

I know I mentioned the headphone volume knob, and that is in reference to the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack on the bottom so you can have zero latency monitoring. The knob works fine, and even using Apple headphones, I can hear myself perfectly at 75% volume.

Also, above the headphone volume knob, there is the mute button, which always glows red, and then flashes red when clicked, which means that the capsules will not record anything.

Now in terms of the polar patterns, I mainly use cardioid, because it let's you be in front of the microphone, and only records what's in front of it, so I can do voiceovers and not worry about the rest of my house (the people in it of course) interfering with the audio. The different polar patterns (cardioid, stereo, bidirectional, and omnidirectional) are good for many other purposes, such as vocals, choirs, live recordings of bands, podcasts, and virtually any other situation, but I'm not going to get into the specifics of things because google will be your best friend for that.

Basically the reason I wrote this article was so that you would know if the Blue Yeti was right for you. If you think all of its functions, capabilities, pros, and even cons are right for you, then I hope I was helpful if giving you some insight about one of the greatest microphones you can buy for (sometimes) less than $150.

Review - Beacon Audio Orion's

The Beacon Audio Orion's are a supposedly amazing pair of headphones, forthe price, but are they worth all the hype? The Beacon Audio Orion's arestunning headphones, all jokes aside.

Before I even put these guys on, I just looked at them and said, "Wow." For some reason or another, I'm always drawn to headphones that look good.

I could be in Best Buy and the store representative could tell me a pair ofheadphone's are crap, and I'd still put them on and listen to them if they were stylish.

I kid you not, these headphone's look good so stellar that your average audiophile would pick them up and put them on just to see how good they lookwearing them.

I could just give everyone a list of the type of drivers these headphones have, and all of the specifications of what this pair of headphones is really made of.

My only caviat is that I would love to see more low end bass in these headphones.

When I put these headphones on, it's like I'm eneveloped in a cone of sound, coming from all directions, with rich highs and mids, but the only thing I wish these headphones offered was more bass.

Now be that as it may, these headphones can output some high fidelity audio,and in my opinion are definitely worth the price - the bottom line is that theysound great, and that's really my main argument here as to why you shouldbuy them.

Now, this is the part where I ramble on about stuff that most people will read just for kicks, because hardly anyone ever tries the thing that I'm about to mention, as it takes a lot, let me repeat, a LOT of time to do.

I noticed a significant difference in the overall quality of these headphones.

Once again, most people won't try this, because what I am saying is that you have to essentially take your headphones out of the box, and just break themin for 4 days, and you aren't able to use them during that 4 day period.

Now this 4 day period is just something that I decided was about right for my needs.

They feel great on your head - the comfortable cushions and light weight overall build makes these some of the most comfortable on-ear headhones out there! They sound great, with stellar mids and highs and moderate lows.

I'd say, if you have the money, then these headphones are the right phones for you.

It costs just $1.36 to charge an iPad for a year!

Fully charging your iPad every other day for a whole year will cost you $1.36! It is amazing how this device can do much for 1000s of hours and still costs you $1.36 annually to charge. Keep in mind that charging your P.C. would cost you $28.21 a year while a bulb would cost $1.61 to light a year! Its just mind-blowing how you can charge a device that can surf the internet, access email, and become your gaming console for a year, at a cheaper rate than lighting a bulb!