> I think from a line noise perspective it's close to as good as you can reasonably ask for but I feel like it's still too boomy and slightly muddled on the low end.

You sound better than most presenters to me, your sound is really clean, and I spent your video listening to what you were saying and not wondering why the noise floor was so high. The OP sounds excellent too and his post, videos, and work are great but I had the same reaction as you to the noise level, particular for the channel intro post which does not seem environmental to me. I agree with others that most won't notice, though, and I think I only did because — like you — I have spent some time obsessing over such things in the past. So I wouldn't worry about tweaking your sound too much. (He says, heading to Thomann to fill a basket with a DBX 286s, an Aston Stealth, and a bunch of other things to start tending my audio rabbit warren again.)

I imagine you've experimented with mic placement such as talking into the barrel of the mic more directly? I notice you use it off-axis in the video you posted, but a more extreme off-axis rather than just slightly angled, presumably to reduce pops/breathing and so it doesn't block line of sight. In the “pick of the week” video that you liked the tone of you'll notice the presenter is talking into the barrel of the mic and it's only slightly angled at times; his voice is still going into the mic rather than past it.

I used to own a bunch of dynamic XLR mics but came away disappointed because of the noise floor at the gain I needed to get a good signal, so I sold almost everything to buy the Rode Podcaster USB mic that just works out of the box. I didn't realise at the time how much hardware and software processing people use. I expected to be able to get great sound with an XLR mic and USB interface alone. Few people used to talk about what they did _after_ they bought the mic and interface; they just said “I use an SM7B and a Scarlett Solo” or whatever, neglecting to mention they also had a Cloudlifter/Fethead in the line to boost the signal, bring down that gain, and reduce the noise floor, as well as a whole rack of stuff or software to tune their sound. It's great that people talk more openly about their setups now.

But spending hundreds on mics at least taught me that some cardioid dynamic mics have a very consistent sound regardless of placement and gain, but others (mostly mics with larger diaphragms) have a little off-axis coloration. I wonder if it would alter the sound quality for you at all to talk directly into the mic, even at the risk of more plosives and breathing sounds.

Not saying this is true of you, but I think a lot of people go through phases of buying new mics when really they just need to learn how to place and adjust the one they have better. It's certainly been true for me at times, although there are other times when switching mic has made a huge difference (I would never go back to a condenser mic after using dynamics, for example, unless I had the luxury of a treated room).

I wish more audio pros would offer paid home setup advice; I would pay for someone to check out an audio/video clip, see photos and screenshots of my settings and say, “that's an end-address mic; you should be an inch closer to it, talking straight down the barrel, and then you can pull back on the gain by 10%” or whatever.