A couple of weeks ago I brought a bunch of mics home from a local store to test in stereo pairs with the understanding that I would buy the two I liked best. The salesman insisted that I take two 8-balls along for the test. After completing the test, I can honestly say that the 8-ball is the worst sounding mic I've ever heard in my life, bar none. The ones I tried sounded like they had a hi-pass filter on them set to about 800hz. No wonder the store was so anxious to unload them.