I am not very much of an audiophile, nor do I do podcasting to make any money. As such, all of the hardware I use is hobbyist at best, and completely amateur otherwise. But, I’ll give a quick rundown of what I have.
Headphones
I just use cheap earbuds. I do have a cheap pair of Audio-Technica studio headphones which I use for playing my digital piano, and will occasionally use for an edit of OHAC that needs a bit more love — for example, the Star Wars episode — but I always record, and mostly edit, just using whatever earbuds I currently have. Right now it’s a $20 pair of Sony earbuds.
Microphone and Stand
This is obviously more important, and is really the only equipment I’ve made any investment in. Both Grant and I have the same microphone, the Blue Snowball iCE, which is considered one of the better USB microphones for the price. A more expensive option is the Blue Yeti, but I’d have to make a little money before I’d consider dropping $100 on that.
I find that the Blue Snowball is excellent in picking up my voice, and mostly just my voice. I like how it sounds, and because it’s a driverless USB device, it works flawlessly on Linux. I plug it in, and it’s ready to go.
For a while I just used the included tripod, but this caused issues because the microphone would sit around chest-height at best. I was leaning in and tilting the mic to try and get good audio quality. I finally gave in and bought a cheap boom stand that clamps onto the side of my desk. It works particularly well with Blue devices, coming automatically keyed so the Blue Yeti can screw into it, and has a small adapter for the Blue Snowball. It also came with a windscreen that I use. They include a pop filter, but it only works for the Yeti so that just stays in the box.
If anybody is looking for a cheap USB microphone that beats out a headset mic by a mile, but is as cheap, or cheaper, than a new pair of headphones, get the Blue Snowball.
Miscellaneous
These are not podcast-specific pieces of hardware, just some ancillary items that are on or around my desk. I have a Wacom Intuos tablet that I use sometimes as an alternative to a mouse, and also provides me a nice set of buttons I make use of while editing a podcast.
I switch between keyboards. For the last few months I’ve used the Logitech G Pro mechanical keyboard, which I wouldn’t necessarily recommend (mine has an overly-sensitive left CTRL key), but it is very pleasing to use most of the time and is excellent for long typing sessions.
However, just last week I switched back to a keyboard I bought about a year and a half ago, the Lenovo Thinkpad USB Keyboard, which has the same layout as the Thinkpad laptop keyboards I’m used to. It has the TrackPoint cursor in the middle with dedicated mouse buttons, which is great for casual use on my desktop. Also, there’s something about the activiation weight that makes it nice to rest my hand on while editing.
My mouse of choice is the MX Anywhere 2, which I purchased after seeing it recommended on Dave Lee’s YouTube channel. It’s an excellent Bluetooth mouse you can charge while using. I’ve never used a high quality mouse before, so having a mouse that is so easy to move and contoured with my hands, plus with some extra programmable buttons, is super cool.
Typically, I do everything on my desktop which is a Lenovo ThinkCentre M710T, which is a boring, standard-looking business desktop that I got for cheap, but packs a sufficient punch for all of my podcasting and (very light) gaming that I do. Otherwise, I can easily edit on my Lenovo ThinkPad T580, which actually has somewhat better performance than my desktop. If it’s a particularly nice day outside, I’ve been known to go sit out on my deck or somewhere else and edit on my laptop, instead of forcing myself to stay in my room.
And finally, of course I have my 12.9″ iPad Pro (2017). It’s great whenever we have some note-heavy topic on OHAC. Otherwise I typically use paper and pencil for small notes.