Microphone is a very simple tool with a function to capture your voice but choosing one is nothing as simple as it should be since we may need to match the option with our own application. For those who are doing podcast or recording digitally, Samson Q2U Vs Blue Snowball will be a very nice choice to consider thanks to its good performance but, they are also a bit different and before shopping, go check which of them will be the best microphone here.
In this article, we are going to give you information about:
- How to Choose the Perfect Microphone
- What are Samson Q2U and Blue Snowball
- What Samson Q2U and Blue Snowball Look Like
- How to Setup Samson Q2U and Blue Snowball
- How are the Performance of Samson Q2U and Blue Snowball
- What else Samson Q2U and Blue Snowball can offer
- Samson Q2U Vs Blue Snowball
Shopping for a Microphone
Sure microphone is a tool that can range in a wide variety of choices from those cheaper ones that we can buy just anytime to models seemingly made for only people with a certain level of professionalism. In general they are the same tool that capture your sound or voice and transfer it to an output or storage for further processing and while it is easy to say cheaper models are not as good as the one in higher shelves, the fact is that many of us can go finely well with affordable options.
If this is your first shop, there will be various information regarding the products that we need to understand just to make sure we are picking the ideal choice and while nothing can beat your ears and preference, at least these information will be useful to determine the options.
- The first is based on application; whether you will be using them on stage or at home and in a studio. The general perspective is that dynamic is robust thus, it is used in live performances as opposed to condenser. You can use condenser as a live microphone as well but since they tend to capture lots of sound, untreated rooms and unwanted background noise can hinder its live application hence it mostly uses at home or inside a studio except for shotgun model.
- The second is based on directionality or polar pattern and as you can guess, it decides from which direction the mic will capture sound. The most common is cardioid which isolates the sound pretty well for single users speaking from the front part or hypercardioid where the microphone will capture from two sides of the microphones or even supercardioid that capture from all directions.
- The next important microphone buying factors is frequency response, or simply a range that a model can capture. It highly depends on the application as well because the lower it goes, the better for certain instrument recording for example snares, toms, and bass drum. However, a standard range such as those from 80 Hz to 15 kHz are commonly acceptable for most applications.
- The similarly important response to frequency response is response curves since this graph tells you the overall microphone performance or overall range it can produce. For example, microphone that are deemed as good for vocals will have spikes on the upper midrange to give you that smoother and more intelligible reproduction of voices.
| Samson Q2U | Blue Snowball | |
|---|---|---|
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| Product Dimensions | 13 x 4 x 10 inches | 4.9 x 7.9 x 10 inches |
| Shipping Weight | 1.9 pounds | 2.12 pounds |
| Shop now at Amazon | click here | click here |
About Samson Q2U and Blue Snowball
If you have already decided which microphone to purchase based on our application, now is the time to see what the market has to offer because there are so many of them out there and it may take some time to get to the most ideal choice. For those who don’t have much time to spend, it is good to see what the other similar users are picking because chances they will fit your preferences as well so then we can eliminate those that are irrelevant.
Microphones are manufactured by lots of companies, some are very popular and some are unheard of but to make sure we can rely on their quality, we do recommend getting them from well-known brands like Samson and Blue. Yes, both of them are pretty much familiar in the audio equipment game but for different sub-market because we often pick Samson for its affordable speaker or monitor while Blue itself has established their products to be the go-to for microphone shoppers with highly reviewed and popular products like Yeti.
They carry lots of choices in the catalogue and many of them should fit your application well but for those who are planning to save the budget or spend in a range especially below $100, the most amazing choice will be Samson Q2U and Blue Snowball. They are marketed for this modern application where users will be using the unit in the house for activities such as recording voice and streaming them. Quality wise they are not the best in the market but, for the budget, we can’t go wrong with either of them.
Samson Q2U is the option of many shoppers because of its reliability and probably because it is one of the cheapest yet not cheap microphone we can get today. It is fairly similar to ATR2100 that you can check on our Samson Q2U Vs ATR2100 but sounds more natural. It is not an amazing microphone but works well for common voice recording at home. Snowball is almost like the lower version of Yeti because this one boasts to be made for the same application yet, it is also less capable in comparison.
Samson Q2U and Blue Snowball Design
Side by side from the design alone, Samson Q2U and Blue Snowball are looking nothing like each other because as you can see, the former is sporting this common dynamic microphone look with a tubular body and a round grill on top while the latter has this classic round grill which reminds you to how sport commentators used to speak on to in the past, or even today. It has a nice standard desktop mount and exposed grill on the front with some on the back as well.
Build quality wise, these models are robust but Snowball plastic cover is a concern. They feel great to hold as well as pretty especially for the Blue one yet, their price range is not falling apart that much; only around $10. Beside the microphone, you will get USB cable, XLR cable, desktop microphone stand, and microphone mounting, but not with shock absorption feature while the Snowball also doesn’t have the XLR cable.
Samson Q2U and Blue Snowball Setup
First thing first let’s talk about the setup of Samson Q2U and Blue Snowball because it can be a little bit different. The former is a dynamic microphone and can be connected directly to your computer but if you have audio interface at home, we can use the XLR cable as well to further improve and tailor the sound using the physical EQ your interface provide while Snowball can only be connected using the USB cable so in term of convenience, both of them are equally simple.
Samson Q2U and Blue Snowball Performance
Moving further to the performance, here what most microphones will be different to each other and from the frequency response itself they are listed at 50 Hz to 15 kHz compared to 40 Hz to 18 kHz. The thing with the Snowball is since it has two capsules inside, the polar pattern we select for this microphone will also affect the actual equalizer it will provide. The Q2U on the other hand is a single polar pattern, it is a cardioid model.
Side by side they are working nice and capturing a very good sound quality but when you compare them side by side in the cardioid setting, it is prominent that Samson Q2U is producing a more natural sound compared to Snowball. In its two different settings, the latter is also different because overall the cardioid polar pattern works better and gives a more natural, fuller sound in comparison. The omnidirectional somehow sounds very thin and in our opinion is not useful in various applications.
Samson Q2U and Blue Snowball Features
Moving further, let’s talk about the feature part and in this side, we do think that Samson Q2U is better in comparison because not only this model will let you set the microphone with an audio interface to improve the sound quality and getting the physical equalizer, this microphone will also give you a headphone jack for zero latency monitoring directly from the microphone as well as listening to the music from the computer, moreover, you get the volume buttons as well here.
As for Snowball, the bright part and what attract lots of users to get this model is the ability to choose between cardioid and omnidirectional through the small switch on the back but, as it has been mentioned before, the quality of its omni is not as good nor natural so besides it is meant for personal monitoring, we don’t think the audio quality is good enough to be released for wider listeners to enjoy.
Samson Q2U vs Blue Snowball
Both of these microphones are cheap and will provide a fairly nice sound quality for podcasting or voice over and similar applications but, they are also different as well because performance wise, the Q2U is just more pleasant to the ears and more natural for a decent voice recording while the Snowball shines on its ability to provide different directionality. In addition Q2U will give you an option to use XLR cable and what’s better, it has zero latency monitoring for your own sound and the computer thanks to its phone jack port.
Conclusion
All in all you can go with either of them and still be satisfied with the cardioid result but if we are to get one, we will stick with Samson Q2U because not only it has useful features on board but it also has nicer more natural sound.