My Samson CO1U Podcasting Kit arrived today from the States, just over 1 week since I ordered it. Roughly half the price I would have paid for it in Australia (if you could find the full kit here, the Mic alone in Australia costs the same as the full kit from the US) and it arrived quicker than most things get here from Sydney or Melbourne. Also praise again for the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement; there was no customs duty or excess to pay.
Reviewing the kit is difficult because I don’t have another microphone to compare it to. This is my first serious microphone and all previous attempts at recording sound have been through a headset mic…and we all know how bad they can be.
First thoughts: if quality can be measured by weight we have a winner. The Samson stand and mic are surprisingly heavy. This isn’t the rubbish you buy from Big W or Harvey Norman, this is the real deal.
The kit itself provides a complete package. A shock mount goes on a solid stand that would be impossible to knock over by accident. The pop-filter (not pictured) attaches to the side of the stand. The Mic is USB, so it’s simply a matter of it being plugin and play: my Mac Pro picked it up straight away and didn’t need drivers.
Sound quality: awesome. I did extensive research before hand, 95% of reviews were positive, and those that weren’t mostly said that for podcasting this microphone works fine. In my testing so far I’ve had no issues with background noise despite the ducted heating blowing air and the neighbors dog barking. There is also zero issues with CPU or computer related noise that seemed to be the bane of my life when attempting to record sound previously.
I went with the C01U and not the C03U (the later model) not just because of the price but also because of the functionality. From what I can gather the later model is more ideal for recording music sessions, it’s multi-directional or something like that, where as the C01U records sound from the front. I know that’s not the correct technical way of describing the difference, but you’ll get the drift.
Overall if you’re in the market for a podcasting microphone and you don’t want to pay an arm and a leg, the Samson C01U is highly recommended. Now I guess I better start using it 🙂
