About Shure
Shure was founded by Sidney N. Shure in Chicago in 1925 as a supplier of radio parts kits. His brother, Samuel J. Shure, joined the company in 1928, and it was renamed Shure Brothers Company. A century later the company is headquartered in Niles, Illinois, having moved there in 2003 from its longtime home in Evanston, and it remains one of the largest, most established manufacturers of microphones in the world.
Shure's broadcast reputation traces through a specific product lineage: the SM5 boom microphone of 1966, followed by the SM7 in 1973, and eventually the SM7B. Recording engineer Bruce Swedien's use of an SM7 on Michael Jackson's vocals for Thriller is widely credited with carrying the microphone out of radio booths and into music studios, and the SM7B has since become the reported microphone of choice on some of the largest podcasts in the industry, including The Joe Rogan Experience, WTF with Marc Maron, and Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard. In our own testing, that same broadcast pedigree carries forward into Shure's newer hybrid USB-C/XLR designs and MFi-certified mobile interfaces, which pair the company's decades of gain-stage and capsule engineering with onboard DSP built for podcasting and streaming rather than the broadcast booth.
Brand website: shure.com
What Shure makes
Shure's catalog runs wider than the gear we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
MV Series Podcast Microphones
Hybrid USB-C/XLR dynamic microphones with onboard MOTIV Mix processing (denoiser, auto-level, Digital Popper Stopper), including the MV7 and MV7+ — featured on House of Octave
SM Broadcast Microphones
XLR-only professional dynamic microphones including the SM7B, descended from the SM7 introduced in 1973 — featured on House of Octave
MVX/MOTIV Interfaces & Adapters
XLR-to-USB interfaces and adapters, including the MFi-certified MVX2U Gen 2, that bring an existing XLR microphone onto a computer or phone — featured on House of Octave
Wireless Microphone Systems
Wireless lavalier, handheld, and bodypack systems built for touring, broadcast, and live production
Condenser & Instrument Microphones
Studio condensers such as the KSM line alongside the long-running SM57 and SM58 instrument and vocal dynamics
Earphones & In-Ear Monitors
SE-series sound-isolating earphones and in-ear monitors for musicians and audio professionals
Why we recognized Shure
The House of Octave Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose gear consistently stands out in our player-tested category guides. Shure earned it on the strength of the products below, judged the same way every product on this site is: assessed on build, tone, and playability, weighed against what players actually report over years of use, and ranked on merit.
Shure gear we rated highly
Shure MV7+ USB-C & XLR Podcast Dynamic Mic with Stand
Works as a USB-C microphone straight out of the box and carries a full XLR output in the same chassis, so a podcaster can move from a laptop setup into a mixer-based rig without swapping hardware. Shure's MOTIV Mix software adds a real-time denoiser, auto-level, and a Digital Popper Stopper directly to the signal, and a touch panel across the top mutes silently with a visible indicator light.
Read the 11 Best Podcast Microphones of 2026 (USB, XLR, Budget, Wireless & Beginner) guide →
Shure SM7B Dynamic Vocal Microphone for Podcasting & Streaming
Traces its design to Shure's SM7 broadcast microphone introduced in 1973, and recording engineer Bruce Swedien's use of an SM7 on Michael Jackson's Thriller vocals is widely credited with carrying the mic from radio booths into music studios. Internal air-suspension shock isolation and built-in pop filtering make an untreated room sound controlled, and it remains the reported microphone of choice on several of the largest shows in podcasting.
Read the 11 Best Podcast Microphones of 2026 (USB, XLR, Budget, Wireless & Beginner) guide →
Shure MVX2U Gen 2 XLR-to-USB-C Audio Interface
MFi certification means Apple has directly tested its iPhone and iPad compatibility rather than leaving that to chance, and auto-level plus voice isolation run on the device itself so a single XLR microphone arrives at a phone or laptop already sounding finished. Its compact single-input body is small enough to live permanently on the end of an XLR cable, turning any dynamic microphone already on hand into a mobile rig.
Read the 13 Best Audio Interfaces of 2026 (Home Studio, Podcasting, iPad & 8-Channel) guide →What earned Shure the recognition
- Shure was founded by Sidney N. Shure in Chicago in 1925 and is now headquartered in Niles, Illinois, giving it a century-long track record building microphones
- The SM7B's design descends from the SM7 broadcast microphone Shure introduced in 1973, and engineer Bruce Swedien's use of an SM7 on Michael Jackson's Thriller vocals is widely credited with carrying it from broadcast booths into music studios
- The SM7B is the reported microphone of choice on several of the largest podcasts in the industry, including The Joe Rogan Experience, WTF with Marc Maron, and Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
- The MV7+ carries that broadcast pedigree into a hybrid USB-C/XLR design with onboard MOTIV Mix processing, a real-time denoiser, auto-level, and a Digital Popper Stopper
- The MVX2U Gen 2 is MFi certified, meaning Apple has directly tested its iPhone and iPad compatibility, which stood out in our testing of XLR-to-USB adapters