How good are the reissue AKG 451s?

[EleKtriKaz]

Just wondering if it's worth it to seek out a matched pair of the originals. I have been having some difficulty even locating a pair of the originals, while the reissues are much easier to find. Anyone compared the orginals with the reissues? Any comments are greatly appreciated.

[EleKtriKaz]

I found some here for a ridiculous price. Is this too good to be true? Granted shipping to the US is $78, but that still puts them well under what you would normally see them for. Or maybe I haven't been looking in the right places.

http://shop.synthplanet.com/detail.l...41B4jMnM9CB994

[Blue Bear Sound]

The originals are amazing, the re-issues are excellent, but have a different top-end compared to the originals. The originals had a lush creamy top, the re-issue has more of a clean bright top-end.

[EleKtriKaz]

Good to know. If I can find a pair of originals I'll go that route, but I'm not going to hold out forever, so it's good that the reissues are comparable.

[Marik]

Originally Posted by EleKtriKaz

Good to know. If I can find a pair of originals I'll go that route, but I'm not going to hold out forever, so it's good that the reissues are comparable.

Keep in mind that reissue has "fixed" capsule, vs. interchangable older ones, so you lose some versatilty.

[Blue Bear Sound]

True... I forgot to mention that!

[xstatic]

Also keep in mind that two random reissues sound more similar than two random originals, so it can be hard to compare.

[EleKtriKaz]

Yeah, that's part of the problem I'm having. It's very difficult to find a MATCHED pair of originals.

[xstatic]

Even a matched pair of originals could have aged differently and they may not be so "matched" anymore. However, they probably would be a little more similar than an original non-matched pair. Personally I am not so fond of matched pairs. I like having mics that are similar, yet have slight variances from one another. That way you really have 2 mics, whereas I kind of see a matched pair as one and a hlaf mics, if that makes any sense.

[EleKtriKaz]

Ok...just to complicate things a little bit, how do the Josephson C42s compare? Better? Much better? Just different? They're in my price range. They would be primarily for acoustic guitar...rock, alternative, alt-country.