Recommendation: Microphone Setup for BirdNET-Pi
I run BirdNET-Pi at home and am excited to share that I have (finally) found a quality, ~$100, microphone setup for it! Listen to this recording: plenty of detail and clarity, and very little noise:
This recording setup has two key components: a USB audio interface that provides 48v phantom power, and good-quality lavalier microphones.
Keys to noise reduction are that these are powered microphones and that they connect via XLR for a balanced connection. I've also enabled the low-cut filter on the USB audio interface.
Note also that, based on my experience, the audio interface cannot be powered over USB by a Raspberry Pi; you'll need an external USB power adapter for it.
Now I just need to clean up the cabling & mounting situation pictured here…
