I have two microphones; one for when I am at home, and one for when I am at school. The one at home is a Blue Yeti, which is by far the best USB microphone I have ever used for a variety of reasons, most notably its sound quality and overall flexibility. The one I use at school is this one (Maono Fairy AU-902 Cardioid Condenser Mic), and I must say that in terms of the latter’s sound quality, it is actually comparable to my Blue Yeti. The Yeti of course tops this one, but the fact that the Maono Fairy does not sound too far off from the Yeti is mind-blowing.
The only disadvantages the Fairy has over the Yeti is that it picks up a noticeably larger amount of noise, requiring me to apply more noise reduction via editing software when recording vocals or instruments, which I am pretty sure there is nothing I can do about in regards to Skype or Zoom calls, unfortunately.
I’ve been using the Maono Fairy for a long time now, and have used the same settings on it since the day it arrived at my door. Lately, however, I have noticed that it seems to have issues with popping/clicking whenever I record. I’ve tried unplugging and replugging it in, as well as messed with its settings to no avail. It just seems to be failing as of late, and is the only reason I’m not giving it an overall rating of five stars. Don’t get me wrong, it still works and does its job overall, but if I am recording music, constant popping/clicking via playback literally every 0.5-2 seconds is not going to fly. Overall, it’s a fantastic microphone, but I thought I would share this to serve as a potential warning. Maybe I just got unlucky, but either way, if my aforementioned issues with it are not a problem for you, do yourself a favor and invest in this wonderful microphone.