BUDGET MICROPHONES

You don’t need to spend a lot to whisper sweet nothings over the world wide web.

- Jorge Jimenez

The phrase ‘best cheap microphone’ is no longer an oxymoron. One of last year’s most surprising hardware trends was the rise of budget streaming microphones for £100 or less, with brands like Rode and HyperX getting in on the action with stripped-down mics that focus purely on sounding great at low cost.

The catch is that some of these cheap microphones will be lacking some common features you might find for more cash, like volume control. Hell, a lot of these budget mics don’t even have a mute button. The idea is that you can do all that with third-party software like OBS or Xsplit instead.

Yet while some might be turned off by a lack of extra features, the sound quality and low price more than make up for it in our eyes. These cheap mics give the budding content creator everything they need to get started for as little as £40.

SoloCast

HYPERX

Simply awesome

The HyperX SoloCast is a budget microphone that sounds just as good as, if not better than, microphones available for double the price. It’s less flashy than HyperX’s more out-there microphone, the QuadCast S. I won’t lie, I miss the RGB lighting. However, the sound quality on this mic is just incredible for the money. Even when comparing the two, the sound quality is scarily similar when using cardioid mode across both.