I'm coming from a cheap Behringer C-1 and UM2 setup that was also possibly broken, it was a hassle to use, constant glitching from the headphone output, recordings sounded horrible. Bought this microphone with an Audient ID4 MKII, no more problems and noticeable difference in quality of my recordings, this is my second microphone, i haven't heard any higher-end microphones so i can't really compare it to other microphones. The microphone is practically noise-less, my previous set up was a noise-generator.