There's no debate, really: the original Yeti, unleashed last year, is the best USB microphone going. We gave it a well-deserved five star review and since then it's dropped to an average price of under £100.For such an accomplished mic, that's frankly astonishing.

The Blue Microphones Yeti Professional version doesn't actually mess with the formula at all.

It has the same proprietary three capsule sensor with on-board gain control. It has the same quartet of operating modes, making it suitable for close-range, conferencing, stereo or mono recording.

It carries the same old-school looks, this time with a matte black finish to the body. And it's equipped with the same two-way USB interface which features the same latency-free headphone/Mac output monitoring.

It's still as compatible and straightforward as its older sibling where it counts. The big change that's been made in the transition from standard to professional is the addition of a stereo XLR jack, which means the Yeti Pro can be hooked up to any industry-standard mixing console and used as a standard condenser mic.

This really solves the big deficiency of the original model; attempting to run a jack through its headphone monitoring port and hook it up to a desk was awkward at best.

Here you run the included Stereo XLR to 2x XLR cable directly into two mono tracks, switch on phantom power, and you're done.

But that luxury comes at a price. Shop around and you might find the Yeti Pro for £210, over twice the price of the original, which stings a bit for the addition of a single feature.

Podcasters who have made the jump to a mixing desk will rejoice at the flexibility on offer: the consistency afforded by the ability to take the same mic you use in the studio out on the road is not to be sniffed at. But that XLR socket is going to be wasted on most of us.

It's the one thing that was missing from the original; now all that's missing is a drop to a reasonable price.

Podcasting is much improved by the addition of proper equipment, but you don't need to go mad; Samson's Meteor USB Microphone is a decent replacement for any laptop mic or headset, and it's cheaper than a full-scale SLR mic setup.

Its sensitive cardioid pattern can make a real difference in quality, and the chrome styling is pretty attractive too, particularly if you have velvet lapels on your suit jacket and an upcoming gig at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance.

There's a problem though; the angle of attack is quite limited, and its tiny chrome feet don't lift it far from the desk. It's adjustable, to an extent, but the limited range of its pattern means you'll need to be in the right spot.

To get the absolute best signal out of the Meteor you'll need to hunch close to the capsule, prop it up on a box, or screw it onto a mic stand, which puts a damper on its portability somewhat.

And then there's the Yeti to consider: Blue's excellent USB mic is only £10 more and is much more flexible, both in its size and in its full quotient of operating modes.

Okay, the Meteor is a quality mic at its size, but it's that same diminutive size that lets it down in the end.

Forget what you think you know about sound recording: the traditional home microphone is dead. Never again should a mini-jack plug have to run its awful buzzing signal into your Mac's mic socket.

The digital domain of USB is here – and it's better. Blue's Yeti, the beastly sequel to its groundbreaking Snowball USB mic, exudes a retro charm completely at odds with its next-gen makeup.

The heavy 50s-style metal construction – complete with a brilliantly designed large-footprint table stand – lends it an air of seriousness that its little brother (a white plastic orb) missed.

One advantage of its 5v-powered USB makeup is that the Yeti is able to put many of the most important recording controls on board. There's a built-in gain dial, essential if you're recording quiet or distant sounds and useful for preventing later processing.

It also features a volume knob for the live-monitoring headphone amp, a mute button to pause recording, and the most important control of all: the pattern switch, which selects between the four operating modes of its triple-capsule array.

The Yeti's quality was clear and full in every test we gave its multiple patterns, though you may want to invest in a pop-shield for the best possible results. Its omni-directional mode captured a room full of chatting people clearly and loudly, the cardioid and bi-directional patterns were pleasingly precise (although you'll need to lean close to the mic to get the best from them), and its stereo pattern is perfect for podcasting, neatly separating multiple voices gathered around a table.

Whether that range of functionality does enough to counter the Yeti's one obvious disadvantage – the fact that you're tethered to a single mic rather than a multi-head setup – is a matter of taste.

But bear in mind that an external mixer and the relevant microphones to replace its stereo function will cost a lot more than the Yeti, and this is an unquestionably high-quality mic (THX certified, no less) at a ridiculously reasonable price.

The Eyeball 2.0 from Blue Microphones is squarely aimed at those who want improved video conferencing, or want to record better quality YouTube uploads, with a focus on superior audio performance.

First, let's get the aesthetics out of the way. Take one look at the Eyeball 2.0 and the focus on audio becomes glaringly obvious. While the camera is nestled away – almost apologetically – in the retractable side appendage, the Eyeball's mic is a bulbous adornment that simply shouts 'I'm all about the audio!'.

Before we even get into the camera's performance, this could well be an issue for the more style-conscious among you. It just looks really weird! But looks aren't everything.

To get started with your Mac, all you need to do is hang the camera from the top of your monitor, and plug it in via USB. The camera is auto-detected, and there's no need for third-party software.

This initial setup couldn't be simpler. Be warned, though; there are issues with iMovie. You first have to record videos using Photo Booth and then import them into your iMovie project – an irritating additional step for some.

At 640x480, the iSight camera built in to most Macs doesn't take much beating, and though the Eyeball boasts a sharper, more contrasted picture (1600x1200), there's some serious image noise and blurring with movement.

Audio's a different story, though, with the Eyeball trumping a built-in mic for pick-up, bass, and pretty much every aspect of audio quality. But this is a webcam, not a mic!

Podcasting? You've three options.

Option one: record with your laptop's built-in microphone. It will sound, frankly, cock.

Option two: mortgage your house, buy a mixer, a few microphones, mic stands, cables, preamps and a fancy new sound card. Top quality it may be, but this solution will leave you entirely destitute.

The Blue Snowball is option 3: a one-stop USB mic.

It's a proper fancypants condenser mic, but entirely plug and play. It shows up as its own sound card: just choose it in your preferred recording software and you're good to go.

A switch on the back lets you select one of three operating modes, where the twin capsules within can be set to receive sound in a standard cardioid pattern (for close-up vocals), cardioid with a -10dB pad (for louder sources like live music) or omnidirectional (ideal if you've got a room full of people to record).

Honestly, we're astonished by the quality of the Snowball. The standard cardioid sound is both bright and bassy, with an absolute minimum of background noise: it's much cleaner than a cheap condenser mic hooked up to a cheap mixer would be, for example.

In omnidirectional mode, it certainly reaches a long way into the room, although don't expect distant subjects to be properly balanced; a certain amount of post-processing is inevitable if you're attempting to record with only one microphone.

And that's the downside in this case; it's all but impossible to record from more than one sound card at a time. Plug in the Snowball and you'll need another PC if you want to add an extra mic.

A fantastic little mic; probably too expensive for casual users, but an ideal upgrade from built-in recording.

Editors Keys' Vocal Booth Pro bundle is an all-in-one voice recording solution aimed at both the broadcast and music-making markets.

You get a microphone and shock mount, a pop-shield (for removing annoying pops from the beginning of plosive 'p' and 'b' sounds), a mic stand and the Vocal Booth Pro itself, a 'soundproof' shield designed to stop your voice reflecting around the room and thus colouring the sound.

The centrepiece is, of course, the microphone. The Editors Keys SL150 is a large-diaphragm condenser mic, the same type the pros use to record vocals and instruments such as acoustic guitars.

It's actually a USB mic, meaning it acts as an audio interface and pops right up in System Preferences as an extra input source. The mic lacks an XLR output (so you can't use it with sound gear such as mixers and so on – it has to go into a computer), and while this is standard for microphones in this price bracket, it does make the mic's 'Studio Series' label a bit of a misnomer.

Still, it does a perfectly acceptable job of recording both talking and singing. Again, performance is on a par with similarly-priced XLR condensers, and it certainly cuts the mustard for pro broadcast work.

Unlike most mics, however, the SL150 lights up when plugged in – a neat feature, although it's a bit unnerving to put your lips so near to electrical equipment illuminated in a shade best described as 'high-voltage blue'.

The rest of the hardware isn't quite as neat. The mic stand feels cheap, and the large slugs of metal used to mount the Vocal Booth are difficult to assemble and poorly manufactured.

The Vocal Booth Pro itself is a clamshell design, with the mic-facing side covered in sound-absorbing, high-density foam. Rigged up, the mic does a fine job. Reduced reflections from the room means a less diluted sound, making vocals tighter, more concise and easier to mix.

Overall, it's a respectable if slightly flawed offering, which provides very decent results on a home budget.

Shure's PG27 microphone represents the new breed of USB-based active mics, drawing both power and connectivity from a built-in USB interface.

Many of the functions of the mixing console have been transferred onto the microphone itself – you'll find volume and gain controls, a -20db cut for noisy sources and, most importantly, on-mic live monitoring, which cuts out the usual latency that software monitoring suffers.

Monitoring is important when using condenser mics that have a limited range of perfect reception, so plugging in headphones helps you make sure you hit the spot.

Getting it set up is easy, and its monitoring circuit shows up as an additional output, meaning you can route your Mac's playback straight to the PG27's headphone jack to save switching your headphones over.

It's arguable how practical the PG27 would be for portable use given that you need a mic stand to go with it, but it does cut out the need for a mixing console, so you can record in the field with no external power.

It is also a shame that using multiple simultaneous sound sources is difficult in OS X – this is only a solution if you just use one microphone at a time. And if you do, we can't recommend it enough.

MicPort is a USB-powered mini-amp that enables the signal from a three-pin XLR microphone to work with your Mac.

It's useful because a Mac won't take an XLR signal without amplification, and because it outputs the signal over USB for an easy connection with the computer.

This is the smallest solution we have seen that does this task, which makes it particularly useful for interview work and making podcasts from the field, because it takes up next to no space in a laptop bag. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with a XLR mic, so you'll need to consider that cost if you don't already have one.

Broadcast quality recordings

The MicPort has a phantom power feature that works with any dynamic, ribbon or condenser microphone.

We used a fairly standard dynamic mic and a copy of Freeverse's Sound Studio 3 to make some test recordings. Everything worked well, providing 24-bit/96kHz audio capture of broadcast quality with no noticeable latency issues.

The MicPort Pro has a headphone jack, so you can easily overdub existing audio files and monitor the mic signal. It also has an earphone volume control and an input volume for the mix signal. CEntrance claims you can add extra mics in a modular fashion, but you would need to buy adapting cables.

A pricey microphone

When you connect the microphone to your Mac, a band of clear plastic illuminates and no driver installation is necessary. OS X-level support is immediate; the MicPort just appears as an option to select in either the Sound panel under System Preferences, or directly in audio-recording software.

At £110, the price is a potential stumbling block. For £40 less you could get M-Audio's Podcast Factory, which although much more bulky, does include an amplifier with headphone socket, a decent microphone and recording software.

But if you can stretch to it, we think the MicPort is a better product overall, thanks to its intelligent design, clear audio quality and - critically for keen podcasters - a very small footprint.

Everyone's making a podcast these days, and why not? Hosting them online is cheap, and all the web-building tools we use have easy podcast integration. Even iWeb has a one-click podcasting facility. And if this Samson microphone proves anything, it's that professional voice recording in a studio setting needn't be expensive.

The mic comes with a brilliant stand that includes a shock-resistant rubbery cage attached to a solid, heavy base. The sound quality is a step up from the headsets we normally use.

The C03U has a multi-pattern condenser, so it can capture audio in several ways. Flicking a three-way directional switch between modes lets you chose which direction to record in. You get omni (all directions), cardioid (to the front), and a figure of eight pattern for recording in front and behind the mic only. Different modes lend themselves well to different types of recording.

Next to the direction switch is a quick volume-cut switch that cuts away 10dB, or adds it going the other way. This could be handy during times of heavy background noise.

Ideally, this mic wants to be on a desktop in a studio, but as it's USB powered, you could easily take it out with a Mac laptop and do your recording remotely.

It doesn't require a driver - it gets OS-level support out of the box. Optional drivers are included if you want to change things like level metering and phase control. The package also includes Sonar CakeWalk LE, which is good software for recording and mastering the audio you capture.

Overall? A clean-sounding and fully featured package.

This is a tidy little speaker set from Macally, which is both fairly inexpensive and capable of producing perfectly acceptable sound.

The sound quality is clear and can reach pretty loud levels, but distorts at the top of its volumes range. You are not going to rock much more than a pyjama party, but for a small desktop environment these will be fine.

If you have money to burn and get fussy about things like warm mid-ranges you would be better off looking in some Jamo or Bose offerings.

There is no remote, which some other sets offer, but there are few omissions other than that. The two speakers and dock stack up on each other, and there are four iPod adaptor trays in the box for 3G, 4G, photo, mini, nano and video. The dock on top of the Icetune will work with or without a tray, so any iPod with a 30-pin dock connector with work.

It charges as it plays, and when stacked uses only a small amount of desk space. There's also a 3.5mm line-in jack, so you could use these speakers as laptop speakers, too.

No controls

All controls for the iPod stay onboard the iPod - there are no Icetune controls for flicking through playlists or back-tracking.

The only things you get on the Icetune itself are an on/off button and volume control. A neon blue light shines out from under the dock and you are unable to turn it off, so there's also a 'pimp-your desktop' feel happening here that you may or may not warm to. Apart from this, though, it has traditional Mac looks with its hospital-white cleanliness.

We played with it for about a month and experienced no drawbacks. Macally is good at making simple, reliable products.

Our only complaints are the lack of a remote, which is something we use a lot on other, similar models, and that it picks up feedback from incoming calls to mobile phones. Also, the general build quality lacks the precision of the more expensive brands. James Ellerbeck