I'm sure a lot of people have looked into buying Audio Technica microphones if you do any podcasting or online videos or have considered doing podcasts, webinars, or anything like this. The most popular and highly recommend Audio Technica microphone I've seen is the ATR2100 dynamic mic which supports USB and XLR. (XLR cables are what you would plug into a mixer for better sound.)
Recently I was going to buy the ATR2100 because tons of podcasters and tech people love it. I'm working on starting another podcast as I recently had someone take over paying for Libsyn podcast hosting I was covering for another online radio show I was doing. Originally when I looked at the Audio-Technica ATR2100 I noticed that the price had shot up since when I bought it last year for only $35. It was about $50 now on Amazon so I decided to think about it a little. When I was ready to pull the trigger and buy it, to my surprise the price had gone up by another $10 in one day.
While Amazon is known for doing this, there are price trackers to help monitor price fluctuations, I thought maybe it could be bought cheaper elsewhere. Umm… nope. B&H sells it for the same price and most other online music retailers have it for more.
Since the price of the ATR2100 has gone up I saw that there was another Audio-Technica microphone for $10 less, the AT2005. It looked sort of similar and after doing some research it seems both these mics have the same components. Just the AT2005 looks more “professional” for recording studio and stage productions and comes with a 1-year warranty. The Audio-Technica ATR2100 comes with a limited lifetime warranty but I'll doubt you'll be able to utilize that.
Honestly, I was going to just buy the ATR2100, but I'm looking at investing in other audio equipment. So a little savings here and there can go a long way.
Pictured above is the AT2005 and it feels pretty good and comes with a carrying case, which the ATR2100 does not, and I did some test recordings which sounded ok. This time around I'm going to have an audiophile help me get setup for the best sound quality possible, at least on my budget. So far I'm impressed with the AT2005 and would recommend it.
What annoys me is I returned the ATR2100 I had. I bought a unit last year for only $35, but I couldn't get it to sound great fiddling around with it on my computer, so I returned it. Argh, I guess I should have kept it for a year and I could have saved $15 bucks and put into other equipment. I thought the price would at least stay the same or go down.
What's also odd is that usually the AT2005 sells for more than the ATR2100. I believe this microphone used to sell for $70+ but for some reason the price has dropped below that of it's cousin.
Since I might want two mics for recording in person interviews that sound really clear, I looked at buying another Audio-Technica AT2005. Then I saw in the Amazon suggestion area the ATR100 had dropped in priced to $53.97.
My feeling is partly that Amazon shifting prices and Audio-Technica saying, “Hey, everyone is recommending these less expensive Audio-Technica microphones we have, why don't we just start raising prices?” Not really surprising I guess.
I would personally buy whatever is cheapest microphone when you need to buy one. What are your thoughts about these Audio Technica microphones going up in price? Are raw materials and manufacturing going up in just one year or did this music company just realize they could make more money?
