I’ve been podcasting for a long time, using several microphones on a number of different computers. For ease of use I typically use an Audio-Technica AT2020 USB condenser microphone. It always sounds great on my MacBook Pro, and sounded great on all my previous Macs as well. Rich tones.

I’ve been using the same mic at work for years too, in our digital media lab as well as having one at my desk for audio/video work. It has always been good.

In the last few months our work computers have all been replaced. They all have sufficient power to run Adobe Creative Cloud effectively. Same with my work laptop. However, on all of the new computers, all the mics – including the AT2020 - now sound like shit. There is a very noticeable decrease in the quality of my recordings using the same mics with the same settings in Audition.

I’m not a hardware guy, but it seems like the new Dell PCs have shitty sound cards or something. Recording with the same mics on my Mac always results in much nicer recordings. Frankly, my little Shure plug-in mic for my iPhone sound better than the Dells.

Weird.