A good 20$ mic?

[Hawk55]

Gotta agree with Challenge on this one.    Mediafire is verboten on our Gov computers and blocked...popups & malware just itching to worm it's way in.

[Chalenge]

I also need to point out that recording offline with any mic is not the same as using vox in AH online. Not even close.

[BoilerDown]

I also need to point out that recording offline with any mic is not the same as using vox in AH online. Not even close.

This is a good point.  The vox in AH is compressed heavily, which means no matter how high quality your mic is, its going to sound pretty much the same (i.e. crappy) for Aces High purposes.  (Though with the latest version notes, there's some indication that Hitech may be adding a higher quality option in the future.)  IMO, if your concern is AH/Vent/Teamspeak, there's absolutely no reason to spend for an expensive mic.  You want one that will be "good enough" in fidelity, and won't break on you.  The Logitech USB mic I quoted in my previous posts both meets both those requirements in spades and also costs ~$20, as requested by the O.P.

[Chalenge]

Wrong again. The point is that certain types of audio controllers are more attune to proper function in AH. If you have a cheap mic in use with a cheap audio card you dont stand a chance. If however you have a high quality mic in use with a high quality audio card you will enjoy much better performance. For instance... if you have a cheap $15 mic and your audio card is the usb type (fob at the end of the mic) then the usb device is working double duty filtering the junk off your mic signal plus adding overhead to the CPU (which is actually doing the work) where all the processing is executed. The fastest and cleanest device is a mic powered by phantom power and delivered to your system through the lowest latency possible (currently firewire) and processed on an audio card that processes the audio on its own physical device as well as delivering 3D positional data without any external processing at all. In other words a condenser mic through a firewire device and processed on a top end X-Fi. Any other solution is inferior simply because it requires more internal processing from your system and with AH you cannot afford that.

And just to be completely intellectually honest... any *.wav file can be filtered and cleaned up by utilities external to your audio device and mic... so posting a "clean" *.wav file is poor proof.

A cheap mic used through the same type of device will also deliver better performance than a USB type system if thats what you really want. Cheaper mics tend to be less tolerant of things like moisture and suffer from greater directivity (reduced traverse of reception).

[100Coogn]

I use the cheapest head set/boom mic that Wal-Mart sells.  No complaints.

  Me too.  I think it cost me around $16.00.  Worked good until my pups chewed the ear pieces off...

Coogan

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Me too.  I think it cost me around $16.00.  Worked good until my pups chewed the ear pieces off...

Coogan

Me three, usb headset/mic and it's working flawlessly. Framerates are good, k/d average but that's not the fault of the mic!