I can get about 1/3 gain with my Apollo X4 before I hear any noise. I decided to just unplug that and go straight into my interface and now I'm getting a really clean signal. I've read many reviews saying you need this lifter if you're using sm7b, but that totally depends on your interface. As for the trick, I think you need a lifter, but my friend has a felt head and it seems to work great for him. On Apollo I still have about 1/6 of the way to increase the gain and it still sounds amazing. It was a waste of money and I didn't know it until I started actively listening to the Logic rendition. I can't believe more wasn't said about it, but paying $150 for this all-metal paperweight is definitely not worth it.
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