Audio-Technica AT2020

Best value$100

A cardioid condenser that makes spoken-word and instrument recordings clean enough to judge mic quality and tuning accuracy.

Price links coming soon

Key specs

Reference$110

A USB measurement microphone with a calibration file for every unit — the de-facto standard for room and speaker measurements on this site.

Best value$200

A two-channel interface with clean preamps and direct monitoring — what you need to run loopback latency tests and record references.

Budget$30

A calibrated mic on a phone plug: rough-and-ready room and speaker measurements without an interface.