Agreed, hard to go wrong with those. You could go condenser but honestly I don’t think it’s really a good idea right off the bat and for this use case either, also personally don’t enjoy the sub 100 condensers, would rather have a good dynamic
They do sound a bit different but it’s moreso pick one that has the feature set you need or tilts a specific direction sound wise, but most budget interfaces sound more similar than not (just like budget dacs from my experience). Personally sound wise I like the motu m2 for something more overall pretty neutral and clean, the audient id4 mk2 for something a bit warmer and relaxed with a bit more body, and the ssl2+ for something a bit more forward and airy sounding with still good weight (with 4k mode engaged). But they aren’t night and day differences between each other, and it’s not going to be that apparent over a discord call or something like that (but would be more noticeable for studio recording, content creation, potentially streaming where you can have higher quality audio). The ag03 is very solid when it comes to features with a built in software adjustable eq and compressor that while they don’t sound nice they do the job, and the fact it’s a mixer opens up other possibilities as well, but overall sq wise it’s the weakest out of the aforementioned imo.
None of them really have headphone amps that I’ve actually found worthwhile, best out of that bunch might have been the audient
Ah and the goxlr, now I’ve not heard the mini but I thought the larger one really wasn’t all that great sound and hardware wise but did have software features people might find really valuable at least for something like streaming, I’ve heard the mini is worse so I would be hesitant to consider that unless you really need the software features (which can be replicated with different software if you want, but more hassle to do that)
Personally I wouldn’t bother with outboard processing/preamps at this price point and use case
I mean you are past the point where it’s purely out of utility if you are looking for a setup like this, and the goal is more to enhance the quality of your voice to be pleasing moreso than go for pure utility/intelligibility. I do think that it’s somewhat easy to hear the differences between mic quality in most applications that aren’t total garbage quality (like let’s say cs source voice chat lol), most chat services have gotten good enough in sq these days that it’s still very possible to tell. But again this is past bare minimum and more trying to get something that sounds pleasing to either the person using it and others. I’ll be honest I’ve owned a random branded bm800 with a phantom power injector direct into mobo and thought it sounded absolutely terrible on my voice, tinny, lifeless, dynamically restricted, poor timbre and overall tonality, etc. Just did not work out for me Putting it on a nicer preamp/interface helped but still didn’t really change my mind on it all that much. But of course it depends on the person and what they want to sound like so results will vary from voice to voice, perhaps it really didn’t work on mine. But I don’t really think spending like 300 ish on a nice mic setup to last is a bad investment if you actually care about how you sound and enjoy having it. If you are only using it for utility reasons and don’t really care then it is indeed a waste
Personally I have always liked the samson q2u or audio technica at2005usb for something 1 and done under 100 bucks that’s hassle free and sounds great for the money if you wanted something purely for utility. Good noise rejection, not too picky, sounds high quality enough to get some comments from people with headset/average mics, no driver fuckery and just works, durable and robust enough to last. But I’d go higher if I already had something like a modmic usb
notes on higher end mics/gear for regular chatting
Right away I’ll just say it’s not worthwhile, but you can still hear the difference. But it’s not worthwhile considering how much you will be spending to get that difference. For myself I basically talk to people on various voice chat and voip platforms, and on the majority of them it’s still pretty easy to tell when something in the chain is changed most of the time (like if I change the interface, preamp, compressor, eq, and mic of course, etc). Now if that actually matters is a whole different story, and also just because it’s pretty easily noticeable to me doesn’t mean it will be for other people either, so the value on that might be lost depending on who you are chatting with and if they feel like caring
