All of the products perform so closely, the fethead not wiggling was the determining factor for me. Thank you for mentioning this in your review I didn’t even think about it

Great video, I enjoyed the purr test and the cat choices. Great job

Really great, well thought out comparisons. The noise floor comps in particular, were really informative. And your cats... pure entertainment (smile) Keep up the great work. Looking forward to reviewing more of your content. Subscribed w/ notification.

fantastic review bro. You covered every point with a great comparison and I agree about aesthetics being a factor, so good job mentioning those parts. Also perfect balance of humour and seriousness - love the cat tests. Keep it up man :)

Thanks for the review, enjoyed watching the show.

Great video! I got the fathead a year ago, very happy with it. Never compared it to any others, so...thanks for doing this comparison.

Love that Kitty Puuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr test. No other mic reviewer is doing that. ;) That's an Audio Hotline Exclusive!

Great video bro! Very helpful thanks🤙🏾

I love my SE Dynamite.....I use it with my Rodecaster Pro and my Shure SM7B. It does the job very well and Red and Black are my favorite colors.

Kitty purr test was quality. Very talented cat. However, I was hoping for a meow test too 😂

Great video, fun stuff

I feel my spirits have been lifted! 😃

Insane review tysfm

I came for a se mic activator review, subbed because kitties

I feel that when products perform this closely to each other appearance can be a totally legitimate tiebreaker

@KindOldRaven

2 жыл бұрын

absolutely! I'll pick an ugly, well-performing piece of tech over the better looking yet worse performing one. However, if it's close in performance and price, then hell yes appearance is the tiebreaker ;p

@vishnus.p.4007

Жыл бұрын

You left out one thing. Durability and company goodwill!!!!

Man, the Fethead is such a winner.

This was wildly entertaining. I'm trying to set up a podcast with two Shure sm7b mics. From this review, I think I'll use the FetHead as the pre-amp. What else do I need? Interface? Mixer? It all seems like jargon. Thanks!

You should add review of sE T.N.T (sE DM2 Mic Pre) which comes with nice blue tubular package (as well as Dynamite comes with red one which you have forgot to mention), little screwdriver and, more importantly, has switchable impedance and gain settings.

nice video bro. what program are you using to record your videos, and if you are using obs what kind of filters you have for the shure sm7b?

I've had the fethead for a solid 2 years now. Looking to get it replaced by possibly a cloudlifter since it's very noisy or breaks off audio when plugged directly into the microphone. Like you mentioned in the video, they are very loose, and that's the general problem I've been encountering.

lol these cats have convinced me. I'm getting the FetHead.

Just to mention: you CAN use a special type of FEThead to use with "active" condenser mics. The "FetHead Phantom" is able to pass thru some of the 48V phantom power, but it has a lower "boost" capability.

@natel7382

2 жыл бұрын

You shouldn't really need extra gain with a condenser mic tho so ya the fethead condenser only does 20 dB I think. Might be more the fethead says 27 but alot of tests show it in the 30s.

The stealth is 90 now. I just got a fethead. I wanted to get a cloudlifter but the extra cord needing extra cables and I'm only using it with a mv7x not a sm7b so cost efficiency was a plus. Discord hates interfaces and my mic volume is alot lower than it is on every other app that uses it. Great video tho.

What shock mount are using for the re20 and would you recommend it?

I was undecided, but the cats really help in making a decision. Puurfect.

I have the fethead, and now I see a good comparison between all of them. I also have it plugged directly into the mixer, not mic

@AudioHotline

2 жыл бұрын

That is one thing I should have mentioned about the Coda stealth in the video... the size and thickness on the male XLR side is too large to be plugged directly into an interface or mixer.

Do u think an ultra low noise sound card still benefits from mic booster ? I have Audient id4 mk2

I suppose there would be no benefit to stacking preamps? Like would there be an even lower noise floor if you ran the mic through the Fethead AND the Cloudlifter before they hit the interface?

I got the Triton FetHead (regular not filter) on B&H, because I didn't hear a difference between it and the Dynamite or the Coda).

Damn the cloudlifer sounds just a tad cleaner but the fetheads ability to be plugged in on the interface or mic side without an extra xlr and being under half the price than a cloudlifter now, I may go with that.

Like your video from 🇮🇳 INDIA 🌹

Finally, a legitimate mic activator test. Cats know audio and the Fethead is the meowinner (sorry)

For the looseness issue, try a rubber ring (or 2!) that you see on some xlr cables..

@vishnus.p.4007

Жыл бұрын

Yes. Rode even provide a bush along with their mics....😂

🖤

All of the activators sounded worse than the Motu by itself. The Motu had a nice, open, balanced frequency response. The activators (some worse than others) introduced weird midrange resonances that made the voice quality more nasal and sound smaller. I'm referring to the segment starting at 8:33. I'm actually quite surprised by this. I'd much rather have the small noise increase of the naked Motu vs. the poorer sound quality this is being introduced by all of these boosters.

@cjmllvv

6 ай бұрын

The external preamps are acting like exciters i think introducing all the added circuitry.. it does sound subjectively pleasant although you are adding processing to your setup that you do not have control over

It’s their a difference if I plug it in the mixer or the mic ?

@AudioHotline

2 жыл бұрын

The main difference is that some of these won’t fit into the female XLR on a mixer/interface. The stealth and Cloudlifter don’t fit. I can’t remember if the dynamite does or not, but I am pretty positive the fethead will fit in most interfaces/mixers. As far as sound goes, it shouldn’t make a difference whether it is plugged into the microphone or mixer, the struggle is the fit.

Klark Teknik MIC BOOSTER CT 1 Cheaper and just as good, No mention of it. Why not. Available now on Sweetwater and Thomann, Andertons. They have the CM=1 and the CM-2 as well.

@AudioHotline

2 жыл бұрын

It has been sold out and backordered. I have an order to get one when it comes back in. I checked earlier today, Sweetwater still says “more on order”

I just paid 90CAD on the coda at Amazon canada. got it after watching your review since I was aiming towards the cloudlifter

Bag is good for catnip and the cardboard tubes are good for treats.

Tried using two simultaneously? Should work and lower the noise even more For extra swag put them directly in the mic

@jamesthepanther

Жыл бұрын

I dont think the phantom power is gonna pass through the first one to power the second…

@TheMrTape

Жыл бұрын

@@jamesthepanther But it must by nature go through to power the mic, right?

@jamesthepanther

Жыл бұрын

@@TheMrTape No…it only works for Dynamic and Ribbons that do not require Phantom Power.

@jamesthepanther

Жыл бұрын

@@TheMrTape And they are not “lowering the noise” They simply introduce clean gain into the signal allowing you to set the gain on your preamp at a lower level…with some of the mics that have a very low output you have to crank the preamp to the point where their noise becomes audible. This simply solves that issue.

@TheMrTape

Жыл бұрын

@@jamesthepanther Ah ok, thank you for explaining. One thing you're ignoring is interference induced into the cable; by having a pre-preamp close to the mic, and in turn reducing gain on your preamp, you avoid amplifying the electromagnetic cable noise as much, and as such these things do in fact reduce noise significantly depending on enviorment.

Hey, sorry, so long story short you're not supposed to use any of these with a phantom powered mic? I have a phantom Audio Technica AT4040 condenser and phantom Blue Encore 200 cardioid

I'm not sure what I enjoyed more...🤔...of course learning about audio, but... ...crunching cotton balls!🤣 ...kitty purr test with toys!🤣🤣 ............rolling on/off que!🤣🤣🤣 ......mic activator cat test!🤣🤣🤣🤣

i think sm7b without any inline pre sounds the best even with the noise. but with the inlines, Cloudlifter is closest to the SM7b sound, sonically. the others sound, idk... thin to me, i'm about to buy a dynamite for music recording stuff anyway, thats the only one available in my region.

This comment is 2 years late, but currently FetHead does offer a Phantom model that allows phantom power to pass through for a condenser mic... but if you are using a FetHead to also prevent phantom power from reaching a ribbon mic - make sure you don't use the Phantom model by accident. (edit: I've not used any of these. just researching them to buy one, maybe.)

What are you doing to your cotton balls that causes them to make a CRUNCH?

@AudioHotline

2 жыл бұрын

Maybe squeak is a better word for it? 😂 I don’t know. I guess a phobia is all psychological, so maybe the sound is too.

Fethead for the win

„Mic activator“ to me sounds like an arbitrary, emotionally triggering word. It obviously has been made up for marketing purposes. Testing the RE-20 didn’t make much sense to me, given it’s not that gain hungry to begin with. So I can see why you didn’t test it extensively. The noise comparison between the preamps didn’t make much sense, as all one could hear, was the background noise inherent in your room which was much more audible than the self noise. Interesting enough though: Your audio interface/recorder has an audible high frequency tone and more noise in it. So it’s nice to know You actually can make good use of these additional preamplifiers with your test setup, reducing the amount of self noise. I’ve seen other reviews which were made with a low noise interface, which makes little sense, as reducing the amount of self noise is the sole purpose. Thanks for the Video!

“If you don’t want a big thing sticking out of your microphone”…plug it into your interface instead?? You can do that, you know?

Yoo

Cat’s rule 🐈‍⬛

they all sound the same broski imma keep it a buck wichu

“Fascinating is the obsession of KZread videos with % knob turn” (use Yoda Voice) when it means so little compared to hitting your target of minus 18 to minus 12 with adequate headroom. Signal to noise ratio is a much better measurement and you can just duck / gate out the silent bits depending on whether you are post processed or live. Technology (software) and improvements in electronic hardware has eliminated the concerns of 1950s audio engineers to the point where they are largely myths for the average smo. Just buy a USB interface with enough gain and save money. Even more so if you want to run two SM7B or another dynamic mic requiring a lot of gain. The newer interface models are coming out with enough gain to run a SM7B like the presonus io24.

@AudioHotline

2 жыл бұрын

That’s how I measured my tests. -12 db, I feel like I said that a lot in this video. The percentage is silly, because it isn’t entirely accurate but it is just a representation. That way the viewer/listener knows whether I had to turn my gain up or down for different products in a comparison. Even though the dial percentage may be different from interface to interface, whether or not I had to turn the gain up a certain percent for the Cloudlifter compared to the fethead, would be similar whether I was using a different interface or not. When I say hitting peaks at -12db, that is the important part. Even though I do agree it isn’t very accurate to mention the gain dial percentage, I do think it is still necessary in a video like this as a secondary representation. Also, I just believe that giving the viewer/listener the most information possible is always the best option. I can’t tell you how many times people have said “why didn’t you include (blank)” you are the outlier requesting the opposite 😂 Thanks for the comment and for watching!

@AudioHotline

2 жыл бұрын

Oh, you edited your comment. Oh 🐳

@Andrewc87563

2 жыл бұрын

@@AudioHotline Yeah. Writing on a phone means you go back and revise. Your videos are great I like how you don't pussy foot (deliberate pun) around. You do need to cater for your audience, Podcastage uses a consumer interface to provide relativity and you are too in your own way - rightly so. I've watched four ads to keep you in cash this time.

@AudioHotline

2 жыл бұрын

@@Andrewc87563 😂 love the pun! I completely agree with that. I hate commenting and replying on my phone… that’s usually where I have to do it though 👎 Yeah it can be a bit of a challenge trying to balance the interest of the beginner viewer and the more advanced viewer. It seems like either the beginner gets bored or the advanced audio viewer gets annoyed by the lack of info. Which I totally understand, neither are wrong, that’s just the way it is! I am keeping your comment in mind and seeing what I can do about making things a bit more accurate. Thanks again for the comment and for watching those ads! It helps!

Cloudlifter is 100% the cleanest sounding.

U and cotton balls is just like me and styrofoam. I CAN NOT STAND STYROFOAM.

Yes just noticed on sweetwater. Thomann showing CT-1 AS IN STOCK AND AVAILABLE NOW THOUGH. Its easier for uk to get them than rest of the world I think. I can not believe people buy the expensive ones for no Logical reason. As you will know that the net and youtube are full of great reviews for them.. I will read the adverts more carefully in the future. Note to Myself I am old and a blind Dick head. Must take more notice. New rule for me. Engage mouth only after using my brain first. Love your channel. Keep at it. Oh and man your cat is so cool.