604: stereo pair?

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Juggernaut

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I'm lookin at picking up a decent pair of SDCs for one of my friends for the holidays. Now I'd like to keep the price down so here is my question: Even though the 604 is only offered as a single mic, if I purchased two over the internet with out being able to test them, would the sound of the two be close enough to use as a stero pair for piano, acoustic guitar and maybe the occasional drum set overheads? I know from the massive Harvey post that certain mic companys with not so great QC can have frequency responses that vary greatly. (especially those like MXL from China) Is the 604 one of these moddles that vary greatly?
 
are you talking about the MXL 603's??? the only 604's that I know of are Sennheiser E604's but they are dynamic mics made for micing drums.
 
I'm going to assume that you ARE talking about the MXL 603 and have simply gotten the model number confused, as thajeremy has pointed out.

To get directly to your question, the quality control of the MXL mics, including the 603 mics, is so low that you most certainly can NOT count on any two of them sounding alike. In fact, MXL sells these mics as a "matched set" (using the model number 603s - the "s" is presumably for "stereo"), but I am very, very doubtful that MXL even bothers to make any effort whatsoever to "match" these mics using proper test equipment. I think that the only difference with MXL's "matched" mics is that they pick two from the same production run and just ASSUME that they'll be matched, more or less. In fact, I've heard from people who have bought the supposedly "matched set" only to find that the two mics sound entirely different!

To be fair to MXL, they really couldn't do it any other way with mics at this price point. it would cost more to pay somebody to properly match them than the mics, themselves, cost.

Bassman

(edit for typo)
 
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Correct- the MXL 604 is similar to a 603 with pad, bass cut, and an omni capsule.

http://mixonline.com/news/headline/mxl-604-mic-1103051/index.html

It comes in a snazzy wooden box, and I can get a pair from Guitar Center for $150 out the door.
To answer the question, "will they be close enough?"- I can only say- If I roll 2 six sided dice, will I get a seven?- Richie
 
I just got a pair of 604's in and am goping to try them out when I get a chance. I will also check to see how well matched they are:)
 
Yes they will do fine for what your are asking of them. Dont worry about it.
 
Yeah, I meant the MXL 604s the replacement to the 603s. I think I'll give them a try. I'd go with the matched pair of the 603s but I like the advantage of the omni and cardinoid capsules, not to mention the -10db pad in the 604s.
 
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