iMac allegic to third party microphones?

Are Apple products allergic to third party microphones?

Here’s why I ask that strange question. A while back, I purchased a Blue Snowball mic.

When I use it on my Chromebook (more about that later) it is terrific.It makes even my voice sound okay, and that’s not easy.

But, here’s the thing. I bought it to use with my Mac. Specifically, I’ve got an iMac Retina running 10.15.3. I’ve used it for a while, mostly to do graphics, video, and writing. But, I’d hoped to do a bit more with it in audio as well. Specifically, I’m taking some pressure from friends to try narrating audiobooks and such.

That’s why I bought the Snowball.

When I plugged the mic into the Mac, I found that it did, indeed, produce a better recording. But not that much better. In fact, listen to a recording on Audacity or Wavepad done on the internal mic and the same recording done on the Blue Snowball, it’s kind of hard to tell the difference.

There’s worse to come. A recording done with the Snowball very often seems to have a hiss which is not present on a recording done with the internal microphone. Also, maybe because it is so sensitive, the Snowball seems to pick up every tiny sound that the Mac makes -- internal fans, disc drives, external disc, you name it (but that’s not the mic’s fault. Still, it’s annoying.)

I thought maybe the issue was that the office where I have my computer is just too noisy, so I rigged up an isolation box (well, a sphere, actually) for the mic. That didn’t work either.

Finally, I attached the Snowball to my Chromebook. And, as I say, the recording was astonishing. Once it wasn’t attached to the Mac, the Snowball was terrific.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with third-party microphones and Macs? Are IMac’s somehow allergic to Snowballs?

Thanks hugely in advance.