Difference between the Andrea microphone packages?

**emkman** · 03-31-2009, 12:47 PM

I am struggling to figure out the exact differences between Andrea Electronics Superbeam Array Microphone Bundle
and
USB-SA Andrea External USB Soundcard / SuperBeam Microphone Bundle
Even the Andrea website is similarly vague.

Things I can tell:

They both come with the same actual microphone
they both come with software offering directional audio processing and noise cancellation
The first item only connects the microphone as a USB input
The second item is an actual USB soundcard offering both mic in and stereo out

Things I can't tell:

Why the one which only offers mic in is $15 more than the one which claims to include a high quality sound card
If they both come with the same software, or if one has a subset of the other.

Also, do you think the USB sound card will offer significant improvement over the onboard sound of my Mac Mini( running windows so I would be using the Andrea software ) or are the claims of noise reduction circuitry mostly marketing hype. A mic is the last item I need to add to my already hefty mp3car store shopping cart, so I appreciate the help.

**theBlueLight** · 04-08-2009, 06:03 AM

I was wondering the exact same thing, and was about to post about it but I slipped and bought the cheaper one with the USB soundcard instead. Whoops. I figured that seeing as you can download the software from the Andrea website anyway and the USB card had supposed noise reduction hardware then that was the better buy, but I too would like to find out from those in the know...