Looking to buy a new condenser microphone. BLUE *Spark* or RODE NT1-A??

meecow1490

New member
Hey guys ive narrowed my search for a nice mic down to the BLUE *Spark* and the RODE NT1-A. Both mics are around the same price rage and have similar reviews. Any suggestions to which one is better or which i should get? Any help will be appreciated!!

Thanks a lot guys!


Pete
 
Hello Pete and welcome.
There is a used rode NT1000 here at HR in the classified section for less than either of those two that you mention.
The NT1000 is better than both of those.
 
imho don't buy the nt-1. if you have narrowed it to those two, for whatever reasons (suitability, availability and price probably), the spark is vastly superior to it in almost every way imho.

the spark isn't an LDC, it's a larger medium diaphram. it's also the same capsule as blue's top of the line handheld live vocal mic... which costs much more than the spark... and isn't nearly as sexy looking as the spark.

the cad m9 tube vocal mic is also really good and also better than the nt-1. I'd if need be rather even track vocals with a neutral mic like the cad m179 than use an nt-1 or an nt-1a. I can eq and otherwise process neutral mics to sound like good vocal mics - but I can't eq non-neutral mics to sound neutral in the mix. one more neutral mic is far more useful when you have a small budget. the nt-1 is not all that neutral - the spark is neutral enough to be useful for many other things while still being a little bit flattering to vocals. it's not an amazing vocal mic in the sense that some mics are just magical and the spark isn't all that magical but it is definitely a more pleasant sounding mic in the mid-range frequencies than the nt-1a I was using recently. I know some of the original nt-1s are slightly different sounding, but I personally wouldn't count on that.

if those are your only choices you'll probably be happier in the long run wiht the spark. imho. but I'm biased against that rode mic from personal bad experiences... some people have used them wtih great success.
 
I have had nothing but good experiences from blue mics, and I haven't liked the Rode mics I've used too much. That being said, what are you going to be using it for? Vocals? Other instruments? And what kind of music are you trying to record from it? We need some more information...
 
then still, between those two mics, spark wins. more neutral midrange, faster transient response, more even overall makes it good for guitar (but I'm not certain about polar response - simply don't recall right now - but considering it's based upon a handheld vocal stage mic then it's potentially possible that it has a narrower pickup coverage than the nt-1. but the case/grill design often defines polar response and the spark definitely doesn't have a handheld stage mic's case/grille LoL so probably that's not really an issue.)

there are other alternatives, spark isn't the best mic out there or anything. but it's one of the good ones for the money. like the cad m179, m177, m9, sennheiser mk4, and of course all of the old standbys (3035 etc). there are others obviously, akg perception series has a couple of useful models. There are a ton of affordable mics that claim to do what you want and many will work really well. But I think the spark is superior some of those mics I just mentioned for vocals and guitar use. And it's sexier. and it's from a renown microphone company.

I really would just buy it and you'll probably be happy and you can show everyone what a sexy mic you own. looks like it should cost $1000 and sounds good enough to get by as your main microphone. it'll sound good without eq or any magic, and as you learn what you wnat to hear it'll take eq pretty well. buy a better pop filter though since the little one it comes with isn't very good - cute, but not too good. and pop filters matter.
 
Back
Top