This is the comparison between two microphones of popular Brands. The features and design of both microphones are totally different. Both come in different colors and materials. There is a huge price gap between both the microphones. Both the microphones have their own advantages and disadvantages. This review comparison between Blue Ember and Rode NT1-A will make it easy for you to decide which is better than the other.

Blue Ember	Rode NT1-A
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Ideal for podcasters and streamers. Effective off-axis rejection. Provides protection from pops. Portable for XLR mic. Versatile usage. Built-in damping provides excellent clarity.	Well balanced and detailed sound. Excellent Built quality. Reasonable price. Polar pattern and pad control fully variable. Comes with a shockmount and rigid case. Low self-noise.
CONS	CONS
The pop filter is missing. Requires external interface with +48V phantom power. Multiple accessories aren’t included.	Low-quality Pop filter. Hard case missing. Heavy due to all-metal body. To provide phantom power It requires another device.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Blue Ember

The Blue is an XLR studio condenser mic for recording and streaming, especially it is good for streaming. As this is an XLR mic, so this microphone also requires a second piece of hardware and interface. If you use this in the studio, you will feel that the microphone is so handy and quiet for $99 if your studio is quiet, but yes it does sound good in the studio for $99. If you use it in your room you will hear the ambient noise, the noise like something happening outside of the room or near the room. So, the noise is actually in the room and not on the microphone.

Rode NT1-A

Rode NT1-A is a cardioid condenser microphone. It is designed and made in Australia. It gives the complete Vocal recording solution and includes a pop shield and shock mount. It comes with a high-quality 6m 20′ XLR microphone cable cover, microphone dust cover, and a DVD with proper instructions and information with recording tips. The self-noise level is 5dBA, making a great choice for a vocal microphone. The Rode NT1-A is an affordable studio solution.

DESIGN:

Blue Ember

Blue Ember has a compact and sleek design. The side-address design of this microphone makes it easy to position in tight spaces. You can easily sneak it anywhere, as it picks up sound from the front of the mic from the end of the mic. The metal body gives this microphone a premium feel. The knobs and buttons are not there, so it may feel odd. Overall, it has an amazing design and color combination. Its amazing design is perfect for use in studios or on video.

Rode NT1-A

The build of the pop filter was really good it did last a very long time, so no complaints that I eventually had to just throw it to the side. The shock mount is built incredibly well it’s fantastic, yeah the elastics can pop off occasionally but they’re really easy to put back on they’ve never broken on or anything they’re nice. The XLR cable is also very good, you can pretty much exclusively use it with this microphone and take it on the road with you, it’s really nice unless you use it roughly. The microphone itself does feel light but it’s built very well, you will never face any issue with it, although it depends on how good you take care of your microphone and how you use it. You should also take care of the accessories surrounding the microphones.

FEATURES:

Blue Ember

This condenser mic requires 48 volts of phantom power on your preamplifier or mixer there’s a little button that will probably say phantom power or it might say plus 48 or it’ll say 48V or something like that when you turn that on and you have to power the microphone from that. If you’ve never purchased a microphone before you may go looking for one that’s got an XLR on one end and like a headphone jack on the other like a 3/8 millimeter but that’s not gonna work, you can’t use that kind of cable for this microphone, this one has to go to an interface that supplies phantom power and it will say 48 volts at most, your laptop might provide something called plug-in power which is like it’s not nearly the same it doesn’t have enough gusto won’t work you need an interface or something that provides phantom power.

This microphone has a cardioid pattern, which means it is somewhat insensitive from certain directions. So, if you’ve never purchased a microphone before you should know that the pattern is described in what they call a cardioid pattern there’s a super-cardioid and just a cardioid quarter and there are other pattern names but the most common are cardioid and that means that they are very sensitive from one side and on the other side the back of the capsule they’re not sensitive, they won’t hear as well from the opposite side of the capsule. So in the cardioid pattern, there are two sides and it’s roughly in a heart shape and it’s roughly off about 90 degrees and everything behind you it’s gonna hear everything that’s over the front side and less what’s over the other side, not nothing but less. And anything like, if you snap your fingers on the other side, you will still hear it because it will bounce and echo to echoing off the wall. So your sound will bounce and it’s always going to end up.

Rode NT1-A

The rode NT1-A comes in at $229, which seems like a lot for a microphone but this does come with a lot of accessories. In the box when you purchase the Rode NT1-A, it comes with the SM6 shock mount with a detachable pop filter. This package also comes with a 20-foot XLR cable as well as the microphone itself the rode NT1-A. One thing that wasn’t mentioned and maybe they don’t include it anymore but mine actually did come with a little mic bag like a little protective thing so maybe it still comes with that but on rodes’ website, it didn’t say it did.

The Rode NT1-A is a pressure gradient condenser microphone with a 1.00-inch capsule. This is a side-address microphone with a cardioid polar pattern. It has a frequency range of 20 Hertz to 20 kilohertz and an output impedance of 100 ohms in a max SPL of 137 decibels. This has a sensitivity of -31.9 decibels in an equivalent noise level of 5dBA. This can either take 24 volts or 48 volts of phantom power. This is in fact an XLR microphone.

PERFORMANCE:

Blue Ember

Different microphones have different address styles, in which direction should you speak, one is an end-address microphone where you can talk into the end of it and one is a side-address microphone where you can talk into the side of the microphone. The Blue Ember is a side-address microphone even though blue went and made it look like it’s an end-address microphone, it looks like you should be talking into the end of the microphone because it looks like the same sort of form factors but it’s not, it’s a side-address microphone. It won’t work if you talk at the end of the microphone and in fact blue sort of acknowledges this because right on the box the first thing you see before you see the microphone is a diagram that says talk into the side, not the end. That’s gonna be a big thing so if you select this microphone know that you talking to the side, not the end, if you’re talking to the end of it you will be disappointed it will sound muffled, it’ll sound echoey, it’ll sound like not so good because you’re probably talking into a much less sensitive side of it.

The other thing is, it does not come with a pop filter, you definitely need to have a pop filter they show it without one and in the basket actually seems to be loaded with foam, but you did hear it along the way up there that it is susceptible to plosive. So, you definitely need a windscreen in front of it, even though it looks like it’s protected with foam inside, you can’t see the capsule otherwise you will hear a lot of plosives while editing.

You can use Scarlett 2I2 and that is a very common entry-level consumer-grade preamplifier, which works great but it’s consumer-grade. It’s very typical in a streaming setup that you would have an entry-level mic and a consumer-grade preamp going into your computer and that’s definitely a step up from a USB. The combination of both two together calls it $200 or $225 something like that.

Rode NT1-A

This microphone is very interesting at the price point. There’s just something really nice about this microphone, on certain people’s voices it just sounds incredible. A lot of singers and voiceover people and podcasters would be extremely happy with this microphone just because it sounds good right out the gate, disclaimer though it’s not gonna sound amazing on everyone’s voice. But on a lot of different people’s voices, this microphone has given amazing results. The 5 dBA noise level is insane and overall you’ll be very happy with the accessories and everything that came with it.

There are a couple of things in the specs to point out real quick, the first one being that this has a noise level of 5 dBA that’s incredible that’s a super low noise level and that’s one of the reasons you will love this microphone. The other thing about this microphone is that it absolutely isn’t a flat microphone, this one is very particular in where it boosts stuff like this is to be a vocal microphone for sure based on where it’s boosting all the frequencies.

When it comes to the frequency response graph of this microphone you will get the idea that they are very deliberately trying to make this sound as good as possible for vocals without having to do much post-processing. There’s a bit of a cut in the low end to get rid of some Rumble. There’s a bit of a boost right around where most vocals have a little bit more of their body their bass to accent that. There’s a minor dip where you can get some boxiness. The mids are kind of levels and then it starts to boost in that high end pretty specifically.

WHICH TO BUY?

The Blue Ember microphone sounds good and fits into the budget of people who are streaming. So if this isn’t like your main gig you just want to stream or Twitch a little bit you want to make some videos on YouTube this is a great mic. It will give you a nice clean clear signal for streaming so long as you are close to the mic if you’re far away from the mic it is still gonna sound echo. Rode NT1-A is more for the people that prefer flat microphones, that they can mold themselves. At this price point and the fact that it comes with a beefy shock Mount everything. It’s not for everyone, but this does have just an amazing sound to it. It’s not gonna sound perfect on everyone’s voice but in my experience, I’ve used it on a lot of different voices and it’s actually pulled through quite often well.

Both the microphones have different features and if we talk about price Blue Ember comes at $100 while Rode NT1-A comes at $229, so as comparing the price Blue Ember is very much reasonable and Rode Nt1-a is expensive. So, you can go as per your budget and it also depends on what features are you looking for in a microphone.

Expert Reviews of Blue Ember:

By soundguys
Yes, for $99, the Blue Ember is an excellent value, and worth configuring in your studio. The understated design is gorgeous in its modesty, and I found myself wanting to include it in the frame of a video. Although it may…

By pcmag
What at first seemed like pure marketing we can now confirm as truth—the Blue Ember is a solid non-USB microphone for home studios and streamers. If all of the required gear sounds like a headache, don’t fear—there are…

By prosondnetwork
The latest offering from acclaimed manufacturer Blue Microphones is Ember, an XLR condenser studio microphone for recording and live streaming. Though it comes in at just under $100 ($99.99), the Ember is an exceptional microphone irrespective of cost…

By reviewgeek
The Ember is Blue’s most affordable XLR mic for home recording, podcasters, and live streaming. The company has the equally-affordable Encore 100…

By IGN
t $99, the Blue Ember is matched in value only by certain colors of the Blue Yeti. You’ll need a few extras to get up and running, but while you’d replace any of the mics here the minute you decided to buy a mixer, the Ember be ready regardless of how you upgrade your setup. I’m disappointed Blue…

Expert Reviews of Rode NT1-A

By soundreview
The Rode NT1A produces quality results on a budget. It has low self-noise, reasonably high SPL rating and is suitable for use on both vocals and a range of instruments. The tone of the mic is considered pleasant by many although there are…

By soundonsound
Rode’s new designs have really increased expectations of what can be achieved in microphones at this UK price, particularly when it comes to circuit noise — they are typically 6-10dB quieter than most of the competition. You don’t get the fudgy warmth of a tube mic or even a transformer-coupled model, but…

By musicianonamission
The NT1 is a large diaphragm condenser mic from the folks over at RODE Microphones. The large diaphragm condenser is considered to be the clearest of all the microphones. It’s very sensitive to sound, meaning it…

By musicradar
The NT1 has a sleek, fuss-free and clean design – with no switches for bass roll off or a pad. It is finished in a very dark shade of grey. The machined aluminium body is nickel-plated to resist corrosion, while a military-grade ceramic coating…

By SOUNDGUYS
The Rode NT1-A is still a best seller for a reason. If you’re looking for a good condenser mic to record vocals, this is a good choice whether you’re upgrading to your first XLR microphone or replacing an old one in your studio…