As a podcaster, the sound of your voice represents you to the world. Yes, your content matters, but your standards are represented by the quality of your audio. Clear, clean sound invites your listeners to stay and listen to you; tinny, muffled, or distorted sound can annoy your listeners and drive them away. The microphone you select is the first step in presenting your audio persona. Do you want top notch sound for your listeners? Sure, you do!
The CAD Audio M179, manufactured by CAD Corporation, is known for its clean sound and excellent build quality. As a podcaster or field recording professional, you will like its broad, flat frequency response and ability to accurately capture voices in a cardioid, omni, or bidirectional pattern. It is a one-channel, not stereo, microphone. The sound is clean and natural, capturing the band of audio spectrum suited to the human voice, with the low end rolling off near 40 hz and the highs around 20000 hz, as shown in the manufacturer's published response curve. There is a switch for inserting a high pass filter, rolling off the response below 100 hz. It also has a 20 dB attenuation pad to prevent overloading if recording loud voices or musical instruments. Listening to a recording made on a CAD M179 is almost like "being there in person."
It is a microphone which has matured in design over the years. It is a large diaphragm device, based originally on the Equitek E-300 capsule, now using a K67 capsule made in the People's Republic of China.
Output from the microphone is in analog format, coupled via an XLR connector. Use a quality cable to a digital audio interface to convert your audio signal into into a digital stream. Since the CAD M179 has such low internal noise, low distortion, and high dynamic range, it is a good match for ADCs up to full studio quality (24 bit / 192 kHz).