Hi,

I am looking for advice in the proper hardware for audiobook recording under linux (fedora 37) - I don't want to put too much money in it at this point and would favour mic+headphone, as this is not for professional use and will probably use the same equipment for zoom and listening to music + videos... and I am at a loss, I must confess, on quality vs. compatibility vs. reasonableness of price...
Tanks a lot for your attention if you've read thus far !

Have a great day,

Marc

hm, I guess it depends on you, what quality do you really need, and what do you mean by reasonable price.
Also it may depend on the device you have, but in general linux can handle almost all of them (mic and headphone). So choose your preferred one. Read reviews on the net (if you wish).

I used to record podcasts for a community podcast site. I did a number of them over several years.

Given the requirements as you laid them out, I'd recommend a simple headset with a built-in microphone. Unless you plan on recording in stereo, one with a single ear piece should be sufficient. I know you can get them with bluetooth, but I found a wired one to be quite adequate. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about. Note that I am not recommending this particular model, as I know nothing about that brand; I'm just using the picture.

As an aside, Audacity was my preferred recording software. There are some excellent Audacity tutorials on Youtube (plus a lot of really bad ones!)).

If this is not your only audiobook you'll ever record I'd say get a real mic, one of those condenser microphones, made for computer use, they plug into USB port and your system sees this mic as a USB soundcard.

Coming from a professional recording background, I'd normally agree with what Emerson posted above.
But given the needs/uses you've described, I think that you could certainly get away with a quality USB mic/headset. I've had very good experiences with Logitech's offerings over the years; you might want to check those out.

Agreed!
https://www.audacityteam.org/

Thanks a lot to all of you for your answers !! I am going to try and find a logitech mic+headset :-)

The mic option sounds great (pun intended ??) if I go a bit further in the future !!

I chose a logitech G432... should arrive tomorrow...