SM57 - thin sound - fixed! Very unusual fault, but pictures xplain it all.

rob aylestone said:
Maybe the question should be how come big brands who make very large numbers on years old tooling are so much?
Click to expand...
It is a combination of Marketing and getting the consumer to want to drink Kool aid as opposed to brand x. Then pushing the envelope as hard as they can to make as much money as they can without compromising sales. Basically what the market will bear. If enough people realized that the $25 Berry gave very similar results and marketing research showed that Berry was selling twice as many mics as them, then shure would be forced to lower their prices. With the 57 and 58 being the proverbial one size fits all workhorse that they are, that is probably not going to happen in our life times. It would be cool if they did do a better job of stocking replacement parts but there is no real incentive for them to do so. In the end it's all about the $$$$$...Their football their rules.
 
I pretty much agree with TAE. I am certain Shure do not rely very much on sales of the 57/58 for the bulk of their income? They must have gotten the production process down to one of silk, all the investment costs were amortized decades ago so now it is "all gravy"!

We might wish the mics were half the price they are but why should Shure do that? They compare very well with dynamics from other manfcrs, EV, Audix, AKG. There is a French maker Prodipe who make a very good dynamic for about £35 not a copy.

No, Shure have a nice little income stream going...if it ain't broke?


Dave.
 
In reality, the price of the SM58 has really dropped.

If you looked at the price in 1975, it was $101. Today, it's still $100. Considering that you are talking about a time span of 48 years, that's pretty incredible. The 545 Unidyne (predecessor to the SM57) was $69. By 1982, list price of the SM58 had gone up to $175. So in the past 40 years, the price has dropped by 45% not taking into account any inflation! At some point, you start to lose money. Maybe the Mexican workers make more than the Chinese workers. Who knows? Any way you look at it $100 for a good solid mic is cheap these days.

$100 is 2 tanks of gas today!
 
Had that $101 SM58 in 1975 dollars followed inflation, today's price should be around $575. So Shure has, in effect, reduced the price each year since. I think Shure should buy out GM :D
 
You can send mics back to Shure for repair, but you commit to a set cost. If they can't fix it they send a new replacement. I think what they charge is effectively dealer cost of the mic, so it's a pretty good deal. I got new Beta 57 and SM58 mics that way.
 
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