This is the review of the comparison between two speakers from two popular brands. The comparison here is between the Blue Snowball iCE and HyperX QuadCast. There is around a hundred and fifty dollars difference in their price range currently which creates differences in their features too. To know which one is good for you to buy, go to the detailed review.

Blue Snowball iCE	HyperX QuadCast
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Delivers crisp audio in a cardioid recording pattern. Small enough to toss in a backpack. A significant improvement on a computer microphone.	Easy to use. Loud and clear audio. Shockmount and adapter for boom stand. Four polar patterns.
CONS	CONS
Lacks low and top-end, and is mainly mid-frequencies. Just one polar pattern. Mic stand doesn’t angle high enough for proper mouth alignment.	USB only. May lead to a mega-expensive headphone purchase.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Blue Snowball iCE

The Blue Snowball iCE is one of the popular microphone in the market till this day. This microphone is popular for its sound quality and its performance even at a lower price range. This microphone is retailing for around fifty dollars currently. This microphone comes with only one polar pattern that is the cardioid pattern.

HyperX QuadCast

The HyperX QuadCast is also one of the popular microphone in the market while the HyperX is mainly popular for gaming products in the market. This microphone from HyperX is neither along the higher price side nor along the lower price side. This microphone is retailing for around two hundred dollars currently. This microphone has four polar patterns such as cardioid, omnidirectional, bi-directional, and stereo.

DESIGN: 

Blue Snowball iCE

The Blue Snowball iCE is an easy to use USB microphone, that’s plug and play. The Blue Snowball iCE only has one polar pattern, which is a cardio polar pattern which means it’s gonna try it’s best to pick up all the sound coming from the front, and a little bit to the sides while negating most of the sound that comes from behind it, or sounds that will be reverb back into it from behind. The Snowball iCE has a frequency response of 42-18 kilohertz and it is available in black and white.

Just like the Snowball, the Snowball iCE also comes in a spherical design. It’s not the best-designed microphone as a lot of people are into the classic style of microphone which I understand because it looks good and you make a visual representation on your stream but again for under 50 USD I think this is one of the best jumpings in price points you can get, so I can overlook the unique spherical design.

HyperX QuadCast

The exterior design is going to consist of total greatness, and this microphone is totally beautiful. I love the red accents all over it, and the exterior is made of this very lightweight material, it’s probably just plastic, to be honest. Then the top and bottom of this mic are made of a very smooth and soft-touch material that makes them feel so nice and premium and you’re meant to interact with those pieces. You’ve got buttons or knobs on both sides and that is essentially it is soft and premium. This mic does come with a shock mount pre-attached in the stand, which is actually quite nice.

This mic is quite lightweight, which means that it can be supported by pretty much any mic arm that you end up getting for even the cheapest one. On the back of this microphone, you’re going to get a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack for audio monitoring, and a mini USB for power. You will also find the switch for switching between the different polar patterns like omnidirectional, bi-directional, cardioid, etc.

On the bottom, there is your microphone gain knob which is super smooth, and on the top, there’s a capacitive mute switch, so it works just by tapping it to not only mute the mic but also show you that it’s muted by turning off the light that you’re going to see on the microphone itself. The hotspot is mostly around the bottom as that is where it’s mostly illuminated, I think it looks absolutely beautiful, and that is a very great touch on their end.

FEATURES:

Blue Snowball iCE

The setup process in the Snowball iCE is very simple, all you got to do is just plug it right there in the back to the USB, there is no switch once you plug it in and attach it to your computer it will automatically detect anything like OBS, so you’re ready to go the minute you plug it in.

I do recommend getting a pop filter if you’re the type of person that likes to be very close to their microphone and speak to it because you will be pushing that air in at some point. and your viewers most likely will be watching with headphones. The second thing I would recommend is to get yourself a nice easy-to-use boom arm but one of the big pluses about this microphone is it weighs less. It’s very light, so you can get away with a boom arm which will hold its shape in level for you.

Another accessory I really recommend, if you’re gonna get the Blue Snowball iCE is got an extended USB cable if you plan on getting an arm or a boom arm or scissor arm whatever you like to call it, and you plan on guiding and routing your cable down and through the stock cable it comes with is not that long, so I’d recommend getting an extended one. One accessory I will not recommend for the Blue Snowball is the cradle ring that you can get from Blue as well because it takes up a lot of space.

One of the best things about the Snowball iCE is simply the price for around 50 USD, you can get a great plug-and-play starter microphone. The second great thing about this microphone is it is an easy-to-use microphone, you just plug it into the back and plug in your computer and you are good to go. One of the best things that I can find about it is just getting up and going with your streaming adventures or creating content when you’re just starting out. One of the interesting thing about this microphone for the console streamers out there is this microphone will actually work on your PS4 just like being a plug-and-play, it’s USB so all you gotta do is plug it into your USB port and it’ll auto-detect and now you can have crisper, richer, clearer sounds for your console streams.

HyperX QuadCast

The unboxing here is pretty special, just go ahead and slide off the cover after cutting the tape, to reveal the actual cardboard box. Inside you will find a ton of foam but that will hold your instructions and a mini USB cable for power. Underneath this lower foam, you will find the QuadCast itself, and it looks absolutely beautiful as it is. The volume knob isn’t a priority to many people or even to the manufacturers clearly, but while you do get a very nice and clean feed from the headphone jack, and you can hear yourself clearly, this is directly linked to the microphone gain because there is no headphone knob at all on this microphone, so, monitoring with these is a little bit pointless.

When a super loud air conditioner is on in your room, you’re going to hear that it picks up quite a lot of that noise but it’s not that bad, and if you have any kind of background music or gameplay going on or just like some kind of audio, it will probably drown it out or cancel it out to some extent. The monitoring audio isn’t a good experience with these, and the volume knob actually goes way beyond the last circle, which could indicate that you’ll be peaking, if you go past it which in that case it is a pretty smart implementation or inclusion. But you also could have made it so that you can’t go past that point to avoid that issue in the first place. This mic doesn’t do too well with plosives either on its own but again a pop filter can fix that issue for me just fine.

This microphone is a very good value at 140 dollars, you get great natural sound coming from this microphone with enough controls other than the missing headphone knob to get a good sound out of this. It comes with a built-in shock mount which means one less purchase, it’s super lightweight, so anything can hold it and it looks really awesome on stream and even on youtube videos. Honestly, noise level I’ve also found to be lower on this mic than it is on a lot of other USB condenser mics, and so far I do think that this is probably the best USB condenser mic.

PERFORMANCE:

Blue Snowball iCE

Definitely, it sounds pretty decent for a microphone that’s under $50 and that’s something that’s super awesome about it too. It actually has a pretty good vocal range. But you actually have to be somewhat close to the microphone for it to pick up the richness of your voice. You can’t be more than about I would say twelve to sixteen inches away from the microphone before you hear a drastic fall off on it. So, that’s kind of something that’s bad especially, if you’re an animated streamer or you do anything creatively, where you have to have a lot of space for your hands or your actions. When you push air from the projections of your mouth into it, this microphone does pick up the air pressure a little bit more.

HyperX QuadCast

This mic is not bassy or tinny by any means but it seems to have the flattest and most natural sound out of any USB condenser mic. It sounds very good though, in order for me to not peek in addition, I have to leave the knob around the middle that’s just so that I don’t need to do anything in the post. If you keep it like that, you still get a very clean signal but it is kind of hard to hear back onto your headphones, whenever you’re monitoring it because the volume going back into your headphones is far too low. Because of that, at least for me and that’s what kind of ruins that monitoring experience. But still, this microphone just sounds very good in my opinion. I did a couple of tests earlier and I thought that it sounded very awesome. It doesn’t deal with plosives too well though which is why I would recommend having a pop filter over it with this it is honestly totally fine.

WHICH TO BUY?

If you are just starting out, I would highly recommend the Blue Snowball iCE because it’s a good way to start and not have to worry about anything, you can’t worry about the content you’re gonna generate or your stream in general, and there’s gonna be minimal troubleshooting. But if you have a few extra dollars and you want to trade up or buy up another microphone which would give some professional output I would probably suggest the HyperX QuadCast.

Expert Reviews of Blue Snowball iCE:

By OldTimemusic
Blue announced this mic as being better than your computer mic. It would be very difficult to be worse, wouldn’t it? Yes, it has Blue’s reliability. Yes, it has…

By PCMag
Is the Snowball Ice the best-sounding mic on the market? No. Only being 44.1kHz/16 bit does limit its sonic capabilities somewhat. And some users might miss the more or less standard (for USB mics) gain knob and headphone jack. But for $50 we’re willing to let a lot slide, and for most vocal applications, it’s more than suitable. It’s simple, and the lack of DSP means a leaner, more pure signal than you’ll get from some gaming-oriented USB mics.

By Tom’s Hardware
The Blue Snowball iCE is an excellent way to get into vocal recording or streaming if you can get used to its quirks.

By microphonegeeks.com
Blue Snowball iCE is a stylish, entry USB mic with an attractive price tag. Unlike the similar-shaped Samson Meteorite, it is not as blatantly hot and it has a detachable USB cable with…

By Forbes
Loyal readers may know that I’m a big fan of USB Microphones. For two-way video chats and podcasting, they’re absolutely brilliant. USB Mics…

Expert Reviews of HyperX QuadCast:

By SoundGuys
The HyperX Quadcast is an ultra-credible USB mic that takes aim at other units in the sub-$200 price range. Despite its technical limitations, it can credibly record a podcast, stream, or other vocal-centric application short of professional recording. The red lights also make it abundantly clear when you’re life, and when you’re not.

By venturebeat.com
With the QuadCast, HyperX has continued to show that it understands how to appeal to gaming fans. While it knows that great sound is crucial, it added multiple features that it knows will keep people happy long after they spend their money. On top of that, the QuadCast is really hitting the right price. At $140, it is right in the range of a Blue Yeti, but it’s actually a better deal since it comes with…

By PCMag
Gamers who want to stream or record commentary can make do use of a good gaming headset with a solid boom microphone. But if you’re serious about putting your voice on the internet, you should seriously consider a USB microphone. The clarity and richness you can get from a decent USB mic outshine even the best headset boom mic, and that’s worth your attention for content creation. The HyperX QuadCast S is a gaming-focused USB microphone designed for…

By PCGamer
In its quest to inject RGB into everything on the planet, HyperX’s signature microphone, the Quadcast, is back with a colorful new look, as the HyperX Quadcast. The new dynamic RGB lighting adds a little something extra to an already great microphone. If everything else on your desk lights up in rhythmic unison…

By Tom’s Hardware
Kingston’s unusual design incorporating three diaphragms produces great sound at a low price. The Quadcast’s controls are also intuitive for any gamer or game streamer.