Neat Microphones has unveiled its first actually new mic since Turtle Beach purchased the corporate in January, and… it is not what you’d anticipate. The usually quirky Neat has unveiled the Skyline, a USB condenser mic billed as an “elegant” design paying homage to skyscrapers however, frankly, is somewhat generic. It seems just a little an excessive amount of like on a regular basis workplace audio convention {hardware}, a beard trimmer or (should you’re feeling beneficiant) a pen in an inkwell. It’s definitely a far cry from the whimsical Widgets and Bees you’ve got come to know from Neat to this point.

The performance is strong, no less than. The Skyline is constructed with videoconferencing and podcasts in thoughts, and the 24-bit, 96kHz audio ought to be an enormous improve out of your laptop computer’s built-in mic. The giant, illuminated mute button must also be very useful when it is advisable step away from a Zoom chat.

The Skyline’s best benefit is likely to be its $70 value. It probably affords greater high quality output than the 48kHz Blue Yeti Nano in a extra reasonably priced package deal. With that stated, appearances can matter — you could wish to pay extra for the Yeti (or AKG’s new Ara) should you’re a livestreamer or in any other case involved as a lot about kind as perform.