SM7 is one of those industry standards, its got all the shopping buzz out of the way because its a known product, thats what I liked about it. From Los Lonely Boys to Sheryl Crow to MJ and Metallica and on and on and on...its been there and done it.
now Im thinking, LA610 loves low output mics, then into a blue stripe 1176...?
ADD>>> this AKG C2000B showed up, mint shape from a cool new father selling some stuff. Worked perfectly. Holder is ok and Mic has good sound.. Thats not the point...this is Mic Nerd stuff here.
I put in a request for a U87 rental but no word yet if they'll do it. I cant justify owning the "BENCHMARK" U87 costing $$$$ but I can swing a rental price to see if this AKG and all its graphs and patterns sounds even close in a "Cardiod Only" mode in my Home Recording room?closet..lol. (I might never look at spec charts again after this test actually....if it s a bust.)
theres a lot of comparisons to the U87ai for a reason, I like the term Benchmark. Its a good point to start and the flat response and cardiod make it a great vocal mic makes sense. Then the AKG414 and all the others can be brighter or better or smaller or cheaper or warmer.
ADD> more finding> found, in the huge pile of Behringer mics and specs, an even more similar cheap LDC to the U87 Freq Spec chart comparison. It is the B2 PRO, and must be the "PRO" version which freq graph is identical to the U87 also. Its a multi pattern = dual diaphragm which is even more like the U87.
In a sense these mics are flat with the smooth bump per the specs. A lot of good praise on this specific Behringer. theres the B1, the B2....but the B2 PRO has the dual-diaphragm.
the disclaimer of course is how honest and real are the specs?
Behringer suposedly built a two story new Anechoic Chamber for testing, Neumann/Sennheiser has always used this. One manufacturing thing is per a tour the Neumanns get 100% tested and tuned, every mic.
Behringer $150 mics selling thousands of them would be lucky to have 10% I would assume as most Mfg goes for high volume stuff....so the old saying "if you get a good one" is the problem.