Luckily, someone had already figured out how to read out a microphone and present a USB device to a PC, so all that was needed was to put all the bits together into a convenient form factor.
This dual-mode microphone from Maono offers the best of both worlds with the choice of USB and XLR interfaces and a great piece of software to get more from the mic.
[Andy] notes that MEMS microphones are very delicate and ... to make the sound clearer before sending it through to a computer by the USB audio device descriptor. Once the components are chosen ...
However, the mighty German audio brand has woken up to the demand for consumer USB microphones that can be plugged directly into a computer and provide a zero-latency headphone monitoring function.
The new Sennheiser Profile USB microphone allows users to plug it into their laptop and easily adjust the mic's gain, headphone output volume, and sound mix between the microphone and computer ...