There's a fellow on eBay (drtaudio) who is selling the Apex 460 kit for US$279. His claims are as follows:
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"These are the preliminary results of a microphone shootout at The Factory studios here in Vancouver with a APEX 460 multi-pattern tube microphone used on vocals and acoustic guitar.
The Factory Studios is the old "Little Mountain Sound" where A/C D/C, Aerosmith, Bryan Adams, David Lee Roth, Mettalica and others have all recorded in Vancouver.
The 460 was compared with a Telefunken U47, Akg C12, Neumann tube 149 and a couple of very expensive BLUE microphones. The gain of the microphones were matched through 6 Neve 1081 modules with no EQ or filtering used. 15 out of 15 average listeners(not professional recording engineers) picked the 460 as a favourite on female vocals while other microphones got 3 to 5 votes and 50% of the same listeners also picked the 460 as a favourite on male vocals. It also favoured very well on the acoustic guitar compared with the other microphones. One or two experienced recording engineers describe the 460's sound as having the response curve of a finished vocal. This coloured response might not be practical for all applications but it will give the home recordist a leg up toward great vocal sounds."
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I'm not endorsing his claims, nor do I have any experience with
the Apex 460. I'm just passing along the information.
Best wishes,
Mark H.
P. S. Someone at
http://www.usedvancouver.com/used/musical-instruments
is selling a used Apex 460 for $200.
