From podcasting to music, nobody needs expensive mics. All you need is to write good music, have interesting things to say and have a decent understanding of audio engineering. And it doesn't hurt to be a good performer.
Success can come with the sole use of an SM57. The vast VAST majority of listeners are not going to care whether or not the sound quality is perfect. It just has to be good enough. Most listeners wouldn't even be able to tell much of a difference anyway. That is the truth of it all.
The only people that care are the people that have been doing it for so long that they can actually hear the fairly meaningless subtleties, and the others are the superstitious - the ones that believe because their favorite artist used mic A, then mic A is a key to success.
And when it comes to a mic that "takes EQ well", that means that it doesn't sound bad when you boost frequencies.
For instance, a microphone can sound absolutely fine without any processing because it is tonally balanced. But let's say you need the recording to sound brighter and you boost the top end appropriately and it then starts sounding bad. That means the mic doesn't take EQ well. There is something lacking in the integrity of the mic's sound.
But there are other mics where you can boost frequencies and it still sounds good.
I was using a vintage U47 the other day. It was past it's prime. Considerably dull sounding. I then boosted the top end to where it sounded balanced but it did not sound good. The top end of that dying mic was not healthy.
So you can think about it like that - a mic that "takes EQ well" is a mic that reproduces a healthy sound across the spectrum.
