What microphone to choose for ASMR? - Noise levels

I don't think I can cover this massive topic in just one post, but at least I can start. By now, I've tried quite a few mics to record ASMR, and here they are: 

• Blue Yeti USB microphone; 
• Zoom H1 recorder; 
• Zoom H5 recorder; 
• SR3D binaural microphone; 
• AKG C214 condenser microphone (stereo pair).

Later, I'll share my experience with each of them. But before, a few thoughts on the first and foremost issue when it comes to ASMR mics -

Noise levels

For me (and I guess most of you would agree), the most important thing to keep in mind is the noise. Self-noise level, to be precise; the level of noise that the microphone produces on its own. The lower, therefore, the better for ASMR: we record whisper and other quiet sounds, so the self-noise can be heard much better than in "regular", full-voice recordings. The problem is that not all the mic manufacturers share self-noise specs (so what I'll have here is a mix of facts and my own experience).

However, even if the noise is quite distinct, it can be edited out with the help of audio editing software. It's tricky though: it's not advised to cut the noise completely, it's better to reduce it veeeeery carefully.

I used to remove noise completely in Audacity, and every sound (my voice, for example) was surrounded but a thin little "halo" - kind of noise remnants that couldn't be removed as they were too close to the actual sound that I needed to remain in the recording. This is especially audible in tapping recordings: every tap is kind of "stained". If the sound volume is low, you won't probably even hear it. However, ASMR mostly requires high volume, so this techniques is not the best option at all.

What I do now - I use noise reduction preset in Premiere Pro and I adjust the settings as carefully as I can. In a nutshell, I never exceed 4,5 dB when reducing noise. If make it more extreme, the sound quality deteriorates significantly. Sometimes, I use EQ preset to play around the settings, but it's also very important not to go too far.

So what's going on with the mics I mentioned?

• Blue Yeti - quite a noisy mic, but otherwise very crisp. Good for soft-spoken ASMR. It's a USB mic, so a computer nearby (and its fan sound) is a problem though.
• Zoom H1 - seems to be less noisy to me, but it anyways requires noise reduction. Close-up whispers come out very well. Role plays (when you're far away from the mic) are not as good - you'll need to raise gain levels when editing.
• Zoom H5 - supposed to be more advanced than H1, and it seems so. However, the Zoom issues listed above remain the same (role play thing and need to be close to the mic).
• SR3D - not too noiseless. Noise reduction is recommended (but later I'll tell you why this mic is an absolute MUST anyway).
• AKG C214 - 13dBA self-noise level (listed in manufacturer's specs), which is quite good. (For example, Rode NT1 has 4.5dBA self-noise and is claimed as the world's quietest mic, but I seriously doubt it's the best one for ASMR - it doesn't sound that "warm" to me, and the plosives (p, t, k) don't give great tingles - that's my impression, of course. Then there is Rode NT5 which has the level of 16dBA (higher than AKG C214) but it already sounds pretty nice). Recording soft-spoken videos, you hardly need any noise reduction. For whispered ones, I prefer to mess a bit with the edits.

Noise level is, of course, not the only characteristic that matters. In the next post, I'll tell you why.