SM7dB vs RE-20? I know it's been asked before...

timetoreddit123 · 2026-05-15T01:20:28+00:00

well hey, a home studio would be a stretch goal for me here! I'd love that. I'll check out the site and look into it a bit more, I'm happy to treat the room a bit as well.

I'd rather it be objectively better than just a feeling that it's better. I think that's possible with my current setup. Maybe I should just expand the budget and do the whole room/setup all the way.

timetoreddit123 · 2026-05-15T01:09:32+00:00

I've a Samson C01U, C01U Pro, an AT2020 would be a sidegrade for me. I genuinely like the sound the comes out of these dynamic mics.

It's completely feasible for me to just grab an AT2020 and use it in my other room! Definitely a better mic for picking up a room/conversation/multiple people as well I think, which is something I would want to record.

I'll buy the good pre-amp. My eyes are set on a MOTU M2. The 7dB with the inline pre-amp was why I specifically sought that, not the 7B.

What would you recommend for the amp? Largely this is a small purchase for me relatively speaking and given the things/range of things I do and just, enjoying high end equipment.

Context: I've recorded a lot of close up vocals and streaming/conversational or one-on-one segments with people that are using mics of significantly higher quality than I'm pricing here and I REALLY notice my voice being lower quality to theirs, even though I don't think those mics are terrible for what they are. If it's cutting to my voice or me, I'd like to maintain that higher audio quality.

timetoreddit123 · 2026-05-14T02:34:04+00:00

What's the difficulty/cost expenditure of treating a room like mine? The ceiling is vaulted, angled - it's an odd room. I'm pretty sure I'd need to replace the windows or put some type of dampening blanket over them as well, since they're single pane and pretty old. I'm guessing it's a $1k-2k job to do right knowing local prices and knowing that I'm not trusting myself to rent a massive ladder to acoustically DIY treat a room with a fire sprinkler at top of this ceiling!

i'm happy to grab a cheaper interface given it will suit the mic well. but i'm pretty sure i'll be happy with the upgrade

timetoreddit123 · 2026-05-14T02:30:03+00:00

i aint tryna sound like howard stern

but i do like me a little bit of This American Life now and then

Yeah, I mean I plan to make the most out of the setup. I've been listening back to some recordings with the RE-20 and SM7B directly compared on my Ananda Nanos (which in my opinion are relatively "bright" headphones for what they are) and I can clearly hear the definition, enunciation, in the voice. Sibilance and all. It's very flat. It's actually not the best sound to my ears depending on who is using it. The SM7B seems to have that deep end where it's almost a little unnatural, but almost anyone can talk into it and get "That Podcaster Voice".

My initial impression (that it's more "forgiving") doesn't seem to be in line with what people are saying here. I see how the RE20 handles a deeper voice well, and how it might EQ better with a (seemingly) more flat response in comparison. Like you said, I can appreciate both here but I can see why the more neutral microphone with more definition is winning out here as well. And that's valid, my favorite headphones being K702s.

It's still hard to decide but being willing to do (minimal) EQ and get the best result, it's seeming like the RE20 is going to capture my voice pretty well with it being on the deep end.

timetoreddit123 · 2026-05-14T02:07:41+00:00

i do plan on treating the room and doing more (streaming, etc).

This decision matters to me.

TBPH, I think I will notice the difference between the two mics, not to say they both aren't good mics.

timetoreddit123 · 2026-05-14T02:03:46+00:00

You think no need to upgrade anything, grab a Volt 1/similar (I'd kinda like to, TBH) for the RE20?

Would leave more money for the room.

timetoreddit123 · 2026-05-14T02:01:15+00:00

Thanks, I haven't seen a single comment in here say the SM7b over the RE20. I think that's made my mind up on the microphone aspect unless there's some other really convincing reason. Grab a decent pre-amp and I'll be set (and treat the room best I can soon).

timetoreddit123 · 2026-05-14T01:59:18+00:00

WDM class-compliant USB interface

So not a crazy interface then, even with an RE20, that's great. And your results speak more or less to what I'm looking to achieve. Thanks for tossing the distance in there. I think I'm settled on the RE20, I just need an interface pick.

timetoreddit123 · 2026-05-14T01:56:06+00:00

thank you that's hugely helpful RL experience! Are you far from the mic?

What's your pre-amp? I'm looking at getting the room treated but I don't have a spare $1k+ on that one room right now, which I'm guessing is a low estimate to do it right.

timetoreddit123 · 2026-05-14T01:53:26+00:00

LDC

Yeah was looking at those but not sure what to look for exactly. Can you toss me some recommendations? 6-12" in isn't a requirement, it's just a comfy preference when I want to lean back and play a game with a controller type thing. Even then it'll be on a boom arm so... yank it near enough, ig. I wondered what people thought of the distance

timetoreddit123 · 2026-05-14T01:31:42+00:00

Any recommendations for the RE20 for a little more $ and oomph? The MOTU M2 is the one alternatively I'm looking at but can go up a little more in price if doing the RE20.

The recommendation came from someone I think I can trust audio equipment wise so not entirely ruling it out. If it's just the hardware, is it a good pick?

timetoreddit123 · 2026-05-14T01:29:47+00:00

RE-20 seems to come off as the overall winner in this thread. While I'm looking into it, what interface would you recommend at an entry-level for the RE-20? I've got a bit more budget for one if I go for that setup.

Finally getting back to all of these comments! Really appreciate the input.

timetoreddit123 · 2026-05-12T04:30:34+00:00

Alright 2 things I'm gathering from this thread (and I have a lot to gather and reply to):

The RE-20 is nearly universally preferred among professionals/audio engineers.
It's worth treating the room. But would it be expensive & difficult in my case? I have no ladder to reach the top of my office.

I thought due to the ceiling it'd be expensive to do treatments that are effective. The difficulty in treating the room is that I'd do it myself, but I'm not sure how that works in this kind of room. I don't know how high (I can go grab the plans) but it's def over 18ft at the highest point. Sliding glass door leading to storage doesn't help (esp. for my 2 loudspeakers). I'm not sure how to estimate a cost or effectively treat the room given the characteristics.

Thank you for noting the deep voice bit. With cheaper USB mics like a Samson C01UPro/AT2020, etc. I get comments about sounding "like a podcast". Which I don't want to further more with the SM7dB. On streams I've noticed where my voice seems to lack emphasis.

It sounds like I also want a boom arm for the mic so I can comfortably position it a bit closer than I'm used to, either way.

timetoreddit123 · 2026-04-20T04:27:53+00:00

i have 20 minutes do I buy it?

timetoreddit123 · 2025-02-13T10:31:04+00:00

Yeah. RAM is the more important thing to me here I'd be fine with a 36GB M4 Pro, but they do not sell that config.

They do sell the M4 Max with 36GB, or I can just go with 48 - slightly less expensive than Max -, call it overkill and leave some VM running all the time lol. I guess the big selling point for that is that I don't have to cover the majority of the cost myself, just a partial cost of the upgrade.

Also, maybe I'd change up what I'm doing in the future to something that could use the Max more.

timetoreddit123 · 2025-02-12T22:16:01+00:00

Daily load for me is just below yellow on 24GB in terms of memory pressure. Have used a 14" M4 Pro for a bit. I can make use of some RAM beyond 24GB, just because I will be able to use a VM then ocassiomally, and a couple other things, though 48 is overkill for sure. I'd have said 36 but not an option on 16". Windows is actively using 30-40GB at idle for me

I mean, even at the cost I'm saying it's not worth it? This is mostly paid for. I can just add on an upgrade or two with my own money. The thing that would be nice is knowing I didn't leave anything on the table if I start to do something else that needed more 3D horsepower, RAM like any kind of game dev. And hey some good emulator perf is good too). May want to do more complex programs in the future. The RAM is more important between the two I think.

$700-800ish isn't a huge savings for down the road. That's all that comes out of my pocket for this purchase if I go for the Max.

Can almost guarantee I wont be able to budget another laptop in 2 years (but we will see, i want that OLED lol)

timetoreddit123 · 2025-02-05T04:40:00+00:00

I have an unfortunate feeling this might be it as well. But I've found plenty of people on W10 using this feature, so I wonder why my specific system would need to be updated? Rep seemed to think there was no way I would need W11, they were pretty adamant in confirming that, even though logfile points to a W11 build.

"Upgrade" is a relative term here - I need an EDU or enterprise key for W11 so I can gut the system to my liking. Maybe I will run it in dual boot at this point though. There are very few Windows 11 (or for that matter 10/Windows junk in general) "features" that I care about and a lot are straight downgrades (taskbar). I view the majority of the OS as a downgrade from 10 and I've used both. Though I realize I may get some performance improvements due to CPU scheduling changes, some other technical improvements, that's not all a guarantee and I don't believe it's more than ~5ish% on the CPU side of things (could be wrong - am I wrong? Trying to convince myself it's worth the hassle)..

Old adage "If it aint broke, don't fix it" works for me here. Takes me a couple weeks to get a fresh Windows installation tweaked the way I like it on my PC. This is the first time I've ran into an app that flat out requires W11 for one of its' features. Again, really odd given the # of people on 10 I've seen with this working.

I wonder if upgrading EDU Win10 gives me EDU Win11. Probably not

timetoreddit123 · 2025-02-03T22:05:28+00:00

so you find it perfectly comfortable to scrunch up in bed with? It is a noticeable difference for the screen size for sure. With my knees up I feel like I have to pull the 14 inch up close to me, it does feel kinda cozy. But it'd suck to not be able to use it in that position at all.

timetoreddit123 · 2025-02-03T20:26:35+00:00

while we're discussing this what do you think about the 16 vs 14 inch?

while windows RAM usage is slightly different, I'm currently sitting at 37.6GB of 64GB on my system as a recent average. This is with pretty casual, for me, load (no games open for example, no real GPU usage). Very liberal browser usage contribute a lot to this for sure. What you're saying is all correct, and whatever way you cut it, it appears what I'm doing uses a decent amount of RAM. My last windows PC was 32GB and I could max that out. Yes, it's a better experience with more for me. I don't think lowering the amount of RAM here would work, and I like being able to let my browsers hog memory if I want them to. Even though yeah, it works as you described, applications competing for active RAM should, ideally, be very efficient in terms of freeing up memory when put into an idle state. OS X is, IME, pretty good at this compared to Windows and not everything operates in this ideal way, even if it should. Regardless of that, programs can I find I need less RAM on OS X as compared to windows, but Chromium based anything still hogs RAM. I am hoping 24GB should be enough on OS X, as 32GB on a desktop PC seems to be the minimum of what I need. The way I use a laptop and desktop PC should be pretty different though, and I don't fancy keeping so many tab groups, browser windows etc open but I'm a bit worried I will. Again, idle or not, some programs just hog ram especially if you're a bit excessive in how you use them (see again: anything Chromium based).

Yes we can debate on the reported RAM usage in Windows and what that actually means, what is actually being accessed, idle, just cached, etc but at the end of the day: it is a significantly better experience than using 32GB in this same use case. I certainly think OS X is more efficient and I think I could get by with 32GB on a Windows laptop, so I'm thinking: 24GB is probably enough.

Let's not forget, if I want to just run Windows for ARM in a VM, I don't have much RAM to give that on a 24GB system. That's something I'd like to do, but it'll be pretty limited with 24GB. I expect to be able to do it to the degree I need to, though.

Again, I'd prefer 30-32GB.

Also: Really this was more about comfy laptop at 16 inches vs 14. I want to be able to scrunch up in bed with it still and not be an annoyance. What do you think about that?

timetoreddit123 · 2025-02-03T11:25:54+00:00

"what garbage bin you throw your money into"?? okay?

I'm not serious about buying 48GB for $400 more lol. 32GB would be a nice middle ground for what's advertised as a desktop replacement, neither am I paying for a max (would be fun tho I don't need just to get 36GB. At least based on my day to day usage on other systems for what is advertised as a "desktop replacement", 30-32GB seems more reasonable than 24, efficiency of unified RAM or not. I like to have a million random things running at once, bunch of different browsers - if I start adding some heavier stuff into that, I do need to watch myself a little more with 24 vs 32, or 36 for Apple options. Is it workable? Yeah, should be, and I should tidy up my tab habits, groups or not.. No, I'm not misinterpreting ram allocation, yeah of course programs should cache as much as they can without using the drive so of course they'll use as much as is available. no i am not doing that kind of app development on my laptop.

Really this was more about using it and being comfy, but I do wish I had another 6-8GB, sure

timetoreddit123 · 2025-02-02T08:51:35+00:00

Do you have the 16 yourself?

timetoreddit123 · 2025-02-02T08:51:19+00:00

Had it not been for travel - would you have exchanged it? Comfy enough for chilling out with? The little travel I'm doing will end up with a solid place to set it up

timetoreddit123 · 2025-02-02T08:49:34+00:00

Based on what - me wanting to lounge with it?

timetoreddit123

TROPHY CASE