Streamer gear is expensive and there's a lot you need to buy just to be competitive and actually have a chance of growing. Except that's a lie. Specifically a lie told by influencers being paid to promote expensive and often badly made products that will break or not do the job properly. Meaning you need to spend even more of your hard-earned money replacing crap just to have decent quality. So today I am going to break down the best budget microphone, webcam, lighting, mixes, mic arms. And while I'm at it, I'm going to point out why gear you're often recommended is genuinely trash. If you're here for a specific piece of gear, there are time codes in the description, as well as links directly to my kit code, which lists every piece of gear I've reviewed on this channel, in this video, and more. And I want to make this very clear right now. Every piece of gear I show you today, I have used extensively, either when I started out as a content creator, or still to this day use. But most importantly, none of today's gear is paid for, sponsored, or has been asked to be included in this list. I bought everything I'm going to show you today by myself using the support of the $1 channel memberships below the video. So, if you also want to support the channel, then consider checking that out. Let's not keep the best for last like a click- hungry cloud goblin. Those guys suck. The best microphone you need is the Samson Q2U. Yes, this isn't the prettiest microphone. Yes, it looks like something a caveman uses to catch its dinner, but do you want something where they've sacrificed quality for aesthetics and cost your left nut or something that will sound amazing? Hey, I had like a 10-minute long segment here where I go through and test this microphone in a bunch of different circumstances like with keyboards and someone yelling behind me and stuff and then I realized I already made that video like a year ago. So, I'm just going to link that in the description and you can go watch that. No, no, not right away. Wait till the end of the video. The Samsung Q2U is a cardioid dynamic microphone. This means its forward- facing polar pattern helps reject sound from the background and the sides, aka your clicky clacky gamer keyboard. But the dynamic aspect means it's also less sensitive and better at rejecting all background noise, especially compared to its condenser brothers like the Elgato Wave 3 or the Blue Yeti Snowball. Two of the most heavily recommended and purchased microphones on Amazon. And both cost near $200 Australian dollars. That's my currency. That is an insane price for a microphone with major flaws for streamers specifically and will need to be replaced eventually. The downside to a microphone like the Samsung Q2U, which isn't really a downside, is you do need to be closer to the mic or better at projecting your voice because it's a dynamic mic. Likely though, you won't notice this if you set it up correctly using one of the guides I'll link in the description below. Now, the Samsung Q2U is an XLR and USB microphone. This is fantastic because you can start out as a USB and if you want to upgrade to an XLR audio setup later, which I will be recommending some XLR setups later in the video, then you won't need to replace the microphone as well, which of course if you bought a condenser USB mic for $200, you would then also need to replace that if you wanted to go to an XLR setup, which is great because gear is expensive. And that brings me to the price of the Samsung Q2U, $100. again, Australian currency, something which I will always include first because of this comment by an American. But fine, I will be nice and take your feedback on board. I will also tell you that it costs around €75. I'm just kidding. It's also around €80 USD, but depending on where you're shopping, it'll change in price. Either way, it's a fantastic budget mic. Moving forward, let's talk about webcams. Now, these are tricky because every brand will promote their webcam as if you're going to plug it in and have it instantly look beautiful. They'll say, "Meet the new face of full HD, ultra smooth HDR video and control of a DSLR camera." Which really is a fancy way of saying it does 1080p and let you change the exposure, which most webcams have and do. But what they conveniently leave out is camera quality is directly related to how good your lighting is. If you spent $200 redu on the Elgato Facecam Mi, plugged it in, turned it on, you'd probably look like Hell, if you spent $3,000 on a mirrorless camera setup and turned it on, you'd look like because you probably don't have the lighting setup for the shot. This means you can absolutely buy a webcam like the Logitech C922 Pro for around $100 like I did. You'll still get 1080p video. You'll get enough control to make the image look great, and you'll have the extra $100 to put towards lights. Now, I will be nice and say the Facecam M I, the Razer Kio Pro, and all these webcams you keep getting recommended so often aren't bad, per se. They're just more expensive. And remember, if influencers recommend expensive products, they do earn more money when you buy them over budget options. It's just more gross cloud goblin behavior. Why? Why would he say that about me? What the hell? Did you Did you guys hear something? Anyway, that webcam price is a major factor because again, you need to buy lights. So, let's cover those. When we're talking lighting, usually you want three things. First, a light needs to produce minimum 2,00 to 2500 lumens. This is referring to the brightness the light can output. Essentially, if your lights can't produce enough light, you'll need to compensate by digitally brightening the image, which lowers the image quality. Next, you want a solid CRI of at least 95%. And finally, you'll usually want it to be by color so it can shift between 2900 Kelvin and 7,000 Kelvin, aka that allows you to naturally adjust your white balance to help you stop looking purple green or like the current president of the United States. I know. Now, I'm going to recommend three lights today. They're all by a brand called Newer. And no, I don't mean these little USB lights as they are too weak and aren't real by color. Please don't waste your money on these. Yes, they're cheap, but you'll have to upgrade them later. So, first, the newer GL25Bs. These are the cheapest option today, coming in at $125 duos roughly. Important note, that price means it comes with the desk mount stands like all of the lights today. Also, like all of the lights recommended today, they can be controlled via the back of the light, via a remote or 2.5 GHz Wi-Fi, and even smartphone or newer PC app. That flexibility is something that's really important, which I will cover and explain why in just a second. Next up, slightly more expensive, is the newer GL1 Pro at around $150 to $160 dues. This really does everything the GL25B does except it also works with a stream deck if you want that functionality. And I will admit I do like that functionality when I am streaming. And now onto the final light, the newer GL1C. These are the lights that I specifically use. And the reason I've not lifted all these lights up is cuz I'm actually using these lights now. I got mine for around $150 to $180 redos, but the price does range from that all the way up to $200 redoss. These do everything the previous two lights I've recommended do, but also have full RGB, so it can do full color lighting. And it also comes with built-in presets like police sirens, which can be cool for stream effects. Now, I know these different lighting options might seem expensive, especially if you want to buy two, which most professional lighting guides will tell you to do, but I want to remind you of two things. First, your entire camera quality rests on proper lighting. And second, we need to compare with the most heavily recommended light on the market. This is the Elgato Keyite. It does produce enough light as I've talked about earlier. It also has good CRI and it is by color. So, what's the problem? Well, it comes in at over $300, dudes. What? These are more expensive than my GL1C's, but do less. They don't have built-in effects or presets. They're not RGB. So, why are they so expensive? Well, I'll get to that in a second, but essentially, you could buy two GL25Bs or two GL1 Pros for the price of a single Elgato keylight and have the same functionality. Except I'm lying. That's not true at all because the newer lights that I recommended actually work. Elgato key lights can only be controlled via Wi-Fi. Aka, if you have any issues with your Wi-Fi, these key lights just can't be used. There's nothing on the back. There's no remotes that come with them. There's no way to control them. In fact, if you spend even a few minutes googling about these lights, you'll find tens of thousands of people complaining about how these lights constantly need to be factory reset because they just stop working. People have taken to literally taking these things apart just to get them to work. And what was Elgato's response? To release a $35 USD remote that you can buy separately. What? I swear the only people still recommending these lights must be paid to do it. Or again, disgusting little cloud goblins. How dare you? I would never. What the are you? That was weird. Moving on. I did make one more promise at the start of the video, and that was about mic arms and mixers. Straight out of the gate, mic arms are fairly straightforward. You simply don't want to buy the cheapest option out there, as this is the thing that will support your microphone. And if it breaks, well, you aren't just replacing a broken mic arm, but potentially a broken microphone as well. The two mic arms I've used and loved are the Thrawnax S6 Low Profile, which I'm using right now, and the newer low profile as well. Both are around $100, and neither have ever sagged or had any issues with weight, and I personally have had bad experiences in the past with microphone arms or tripods for cameras breaking when I bought the really cheap options. So, I like to find a middle ground like the Thronmax S6. And finally, as for a mixer, if you want to upgrade to an XLR audio setup, I love and recommend the Bridgecaster by Roland. Now, I can't lift it up because I'm literally using mine right now, but I've got a bunch of overlay you can see. This device is beautiful. It has full physical audio controls via these knobs. It allows you to split audio sources, so your recordings don't have music in them. Also, your voice and game are split to make editing easier in post. It has submixing, aka it has two channels, one for stream and one for yourself. So, if you want your stream to hear music, but you need to concentrate on the game, you can turn up the music for your viewers and turn it down for you while turning the game up for you. This, of course, works for any source as well. That's just one of the clearest examples I can give you. I will say the Bridgecast I actually use now is the Bridgecast X, which is by no means a budget device. It's around 800 bucks, but it has a capture card and a touchpad built into it. So, I'm able to capture my Switch and have full physical audio controls of my Switch, which is not something that is common and is kind of just amazing. If you want to see a deep dive into the Bridgecast, then click right here. Or if you want to see the Samsung QTU review I did and all the audio testing, click right here. And remember, if you want to support me, then you can join the channel for $1 down below. Every new member is a closet goblin. I'll kiss. Yep. I said it.