Buy an AT2020 and you have bought about a third of a recording setup. The microphone comes with a stand mount and a pouch, and that is all. It has no USB port, no headphone jack and no way to reach your Mac without other gear. Most disappointed owners were fighting a poor room, a missing part or a wrong idea of what a condenser does.
Product image from the Amazon listing.
To be clear on the model: this is the XLR version. Audio-Technica also sells USB models with similar names, and they behave differently because they plug straight into a computer. Some forum threads about “the AT2020” are really about the USB one, so check which model a post means before you trust it.
The Shopping List Comes First
The SoundGuys review says it plainly: the microphone “requires you to have some equipment of your own.” You need an audio interface or mixer, an XLR cable and something to hold the mic. The AT2020 needs 48-volt phantom power, so the interface must supply that. Most do, and it is usually a small switch or button, but check before you order.
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Best Buy Canada’s reviewer adds to that list. The XLR cable is not included. There is no shock mount, and he thinks you need one. Without a pop shield, pop sounds get through. SoundGuys agrees that the mic “struggles with plosives” and recommends a pop filter. So the real cost is the microphone plus an interface, a cable, a stand or arm, a pop filter and perhaps a shock mount. Several reviews quote the microphone itself at about $99. The rest of the kit can easily cost more than that.
Podcastage’s review makes the point in its conclusion: this is a good first mic for a home studio, and a poor choice for someone unwilling to buy a proper interface. If you want one cable and no thinking, a USB microphone is the honest answer.
What Owners and Reviewers Like
The praise is steady and it has lasted a long time. Podcastage calls it “a great microphone,” with an all-metal body and clean, crisp results on voice and guitar. Best Buy Canada’s reviewer describes vocals as warm, smooth and well balanced, with a bright, modern character. SoundGuys calls it “a great place to start because it is affordable and easy to use,” and says it can “handle loud sounds without distorting.”
The build comes up a lot too. Metal body, metal grille, sturdy mount, padded pouch. In the HomeRecording forum, a member who owns two says they sound fine and suspected a gear problem when another user complained.
There is also an interesting long-life story. On Tom’s Guide forums, an owner of a three-year-old AT2020 XLR found that it had gone very quiet, with hiss that rose with the gain. A second computer and a new cable did not help. The cause was a loose positive wire inside the mic at the XLR connector. In his words, “I soldered it back together and it was saved!” That is one report, and most people would not open a microphone. It does show how simple the insides are, and it gives you something to check if a mic that used to work goes quiet.
Product image from the Amazon listing.
Your Room Is the Other Half of the Microphone
A condenser hears a lot, and that is the problem in a spare bedroom. Castos, a podcast hosting company, advises placing it “in a well-treated room, or at least away from reflective surfaces.” The company does not claim it tested the mic, so treat that as common advice. Owners back it up in sharper terms.
In a 2016 HomeRecording thread, a streamer had the AT2020 on a scissor arm with a shock mount, about 10 cm from his mouth, phantom power on. His voice sounded distant unless he came under 5 cm, and his feet, chair, desk and breathing came through at nearly the same level. The advice from other members was useful: check that the front of the mic faces you, since the back is marked, check your gain, and consider a noise gate. Then he tried borrowed SM58 and SM57 dynamic mics and heard little change. He started to suspect the small room and added some panels. No confirmed fix appears, but I find that thread more honest than most reviews. Swapping microphones did not cure a room problem.
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In a 2011 forum thread, a user recording in a living room complained that his vocals sounded like a camera recording. One reply put it in a line: “The room is 80% of your sound.”
Podcastage’s tests help explain all this. With a keyboard nearby the voice dominated, but faint clicking stayed audible. When the speaker moved away, the level dropped less sharply than with a dynamic mic. The review lists it as “Not great with sound isolation.” Best Buy Canada’s reviewer is more hopeful about rejection from the sides and rear, and thought computer fan noise would likely stay out. I think both are right. The pattern helps with noise behind the mic. It does nothing about the sound of your own voice bouncing off a bare wall.
Self-noise is another small mark against it. SoundGuys puts it at about 20 dB(A), slightly worse than average, and Best Buy Canada’s reviewer could hear hiss during silent breaks, though noise reduction tools removed it. For speech at normal distance this is minor. For a quiet voice with the gain pushed high, you will hear it.
Setting It Up for Speech
If I were advising a new podcaster with this microphone, the advice from these threads boils down to a few habits. Get close, around a hand’s width, with a pop filter between you and the capsule. Speak into the front of the mic, since the back is marked. Put soft things around you, because a closet full of clothes will beat a bare office. Keep the mic on an arm or stand that is not sitting on the same desk as your keyboard, since a shock mount helps with floor and desk noise. Turn up the interface gain only as far as you need.
SoundGuys notes the proximity effect when you are close, which adds warmth to a voice, and the plosive problem gets worse in the same spot. So some testing with a recording of your own voice is worth an afternoon.
For Mac users there is nothing special to report. The interface does the work, and macOS sees the interface. Whether it works well depends on that interface. I found no owner who blamed a Mac.
Product image from the Amazon listing.
The Wrong Choice for a Noisy Home
If your recording space has a fridge, a street, children or a loud keyboard you cannot move, I would not start here. A dynamic microphone used up close is the usual suggestion in those rooms, as a member of that 2016 thread said about voice work. The AT2020 is not a stage or live microphone either. SoundGuys says so directly, and it has no roll-off switch to help with difficult sources, as Best Buy Canada’s reviewer notes.
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Two hosts sharing one table also raises the stakes, since each mic will hear the other person. I found no owner report on that exact setup, so that is my reasoning and nothing more.
A Good First Step, if You Pay for the Whole Chain
I like the AT2020 for someone who is ready to take sound seriously in a reasonably quiet room, and who wants a mic that can also handle singing and acoustic guitar. It has stayed in home studios for many years because it is simple, well built and fairly priced. The results you get will depend more on the room and the setup than on the microphone.
Skip it for live streams in a noisy house, or if you were hoping for a one-cable setup.
If you have the interface and a decent corner to record in, the Audio-Technica AT2020 XLR Microphone is a sensible place to begin, as long as you buy the pop filter and the XLR cable in the same order. This is an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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