Yeti Pro Raises the Bar for USB Microphone Quality [CES 2011]

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Proving that news embargoes and electronics trade shows attended by tens of thousands of people do not play well together, word of Blue Microphones’ new Yeti Pro USB microphone leaked from the desert Tuesday night as the giant Consumer Electronics Show began picking up steam in Las Vegas.

The highly anticipated successor to Blue’s successful, top-of-the line USB microphone, Yeti Pro is the first USB mic to combine 24 bit/192 kHz digital recording resolution with analog XLR output, making it potentially one of the finest, most versatile recording tools on the market.

Like its predecessor, the plain old Yeti, Yeti Pro features premium condenser capsules set in Blue Microphones’ proprietary triple capsule array, which supports four different recording patterns for capturing a wide range of recording situations.

Yeti Pro looks quite promising from here, an assessment shared by CES judges, who made Yeti Pro a 2011 CES Innovations Winner in High Performance Audio. The mic is set to retail for $249 and should be available at authorized Blue Microphone distributors later this month.

Here’s the full text of the press release whose good-faith embargo a certain big-name gadgetry blog felt no need to honor until Wednesday:

(CES 2011, Las Vegas, NV – January 5, 2011) – Blue Microphones, a leading innovator in microphone technology and design, announces Yeti Pro (www.bluemic.com/yetipro), the world’s first USB microphone combining 24 bit/192 kHz recording resolution, the highest digital resolution on the market, with analog XLR output. Like the Yeti, Yeti Pro features Blue’s premium condenser capsules set in a proprietary triple capsule array, offering the flexibility of four recording patterns for capturing a variety of recording situations from desktop to studio.

“With Yeti Pro’s high resolution capabilities, we are taking USB microphones to a truly professional level, while bringing its multi-pattern versatility to a studio setting,” said John Maier, CEO of Blue Microphones. “Yeti Pro not only breaks the quality/price barrier by bringing 192kHz resolution to our popular line of desktop USB products, but with the addition of stereo analog out, our users can now take the triple capsule array, and the variety of options it brings, into more traditional studio environments, such as professional broadcast, podcasting, home studios and more.”

Yeti Pro is designed to provide the highest performance possible in a digital microphone. With recording resolution of 24bit/192kHz, Yeti Pro captures audio with four times greater detail than CD-quality audio. Unlike most USB microphones, which are limited to fixed recording resolutions, Yeti Pro features a next generation analog-digital converter chip that allows a range of recording resolutions, from 22kHz up to 192kHz and common sampling rates in-between. Designed with the audio principles of Blue’s award-winning professional studio microphones, Yeti Pro features separate circuit boards to maintain the integrity of the analog and digital signal paths and discrete electronic components to maintain the highest signal quality. For analog recording, Yeti Pro also includes an XLR stereo breakout cable for simple attachment to analog equipment.

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