A new fake mic from China - this time, the Beta 58

  • Thread starter Thread starter rob aylestone
  • Start date Start date
rob aylestone

rob aylestone

Moderator
I know there are loads of very variable quality SM57's and 58's on Ebay and Amazon, but I spotted a new one (at least, to me) - A Beta 58.

Oddly, it's very cheap and actually pretty good - I paid £19 for it. It sounds too similar to be obvious, which means we need to add it to our list of likely to be fake mics - like the other Shures and things like Sennheisers.
Have a listen and I've detailed the visual things I found different inside - outside, no clues at all.
 
I'm glad I stuck the orange tape on it. If you were going to do some events where you knew people would not be that nice to them, I think I could use these, not laugh at them.
 
At a distance, I couldn't tell the difference. However, I did seem to detect a bit more brightness in the Fake at the two-finger distance straight on - they sounded the same when rotated. They are virtually identical and would be a scary proposition in the resale market.
 
Yep. If they are on Amazon, which im sure they will be soon, loads of people will be buying them. At 20 quid, you know it is a fake, but offered one for say £75 you could think it was a genuine bargain?
 
I'm just guessing, of course. I'm thinking no one would notice a lead singer using one of these while fronting a band in a bar. I'd definitely use a few for jamming or practices.
 
A suggestion if I may. Rob has the link and commented that one could get it from him.

Maybe it would be prudent to buy the known fake at the cheap price rather than later when people are passing it off as real at a higher price.

They’re good enough to make it worthwhile to get a few.
 
RFR said:
That was tough, they were both so close. But to my ear it seemed as if the fake one sounded a wee bit more mid rangy. Hard to tell.
Click to expand...
Agreed.
I use a Beta 58 live all the time. Great mic.
Nicely done Rob.
 
Some of you here may know that I have two mics permanently installed in my garden. I wrap them in cling film and lekky tape and get between 6 months and a year from them. Not being either rich or stupid I want to pay the very minimum for a "consumable item"!

I have just bought a pair of 7quid mics. Plastic bodies but metal globe grill and appear to use a 'generic' far east capsule. They sound ok on speech and have the same general sensitivity as a '57/58. But, I would be very interested in a pair of these knock offs at a score a pop.

However, my head/wallet says buy them but heart and 'morality' says "should I?" After all, if they were in a high street shop marked "Shure" they would be illegal and be seized by the trading standards boys and girls! JUST as much as fake Rolex watches or designer clobber.

To wax very existential...Are we unwitting agents helping China destabilize our economy?

Dave.
 
. . .

ecc83 said:
. . . However, my head/wallet says buy them but heart and 'morality' says "should I?" After all, if they were in a high street shop marked "Shure" they would be illegal and be seized by the trading standards boys and girls! JUST as much as fake Rolex watches or designer clobber . . .
Click to expand...
Dave, I think you owe it to yourself and the rest of us to buy up all their production of these units - get them off the streets :eek::p
 
rob aylestone said:
I know there are loads of very variable quality SM57's and 58's on Ebay and Amazon, but I spotted a new one (at least, to me) - A Beta 58.

Oddly, it's very cheap and actually pretty good - I paid £19 for it. It sounds too similar to be obvious, which means we need to add it to our list of likely to be fake mics - like the other Shures and things like Sennheisers.
Have a listen and I've detailed the visual things I found different inside - outside, no clues at all.
Click to expand...

It really makes me wonder if someone is counterfeiting or if the CCP confiscates a manufacturing lot from a factory or distributor in China and the CCP is dumping it to upset the market. I know they do this to some who don't put 'made in China' on their products they manufacture there but assemble (supposedly) somewhere else.
 
I'm more inclined to think that it's just a market economy force - see a market, go for it.
 
I can hear a difference, seems the real one is lower freq and the fake more mid, brighter, even like some upper presence is added.
the polar pattern was a lot better on the real one too. but this is in test mode.
Add drums, a convention of noisy chatter, or some stadium background and the difference gets lesser and lesser.
You could do the drop tests and see if the copy survives as well, Shure designed is what 8ft drop X amount of times.
The threads no one probably cares. And Shure is 100% Chineese/Mexican company now there is nothing US about them except the suits and some romantic dream in black and white...all their manufacturing is China and Mexico, so what is so bad of a Chineese Shure or another Chineese Shure mic?

Is it all huge differences? depends. You did a good quick workingmans test very well done. Its how I do things and usually dont get out the "oscope plugins" unless its
some noise issue or bad tube. Old mics with spittle and age and worn coils could add some darker tone to the bright new one...who knows?
Its all a brain game at this point. Label and Brand Name brainwashing almost.

At times I almost think in hollywood conspiracys, as if Neumann, Sennheiser and Shure and AKG are all selling bootlegs and not paying taxes on the cash, via CHINA and ASIA ...
so they dont really go out of their way to shut it down as they are "wink wink" making some under the table cash from their own bootlegging?
Will James Bond 007 find the island making all these knockoff copies only to find...all the companys are in on it with Goldfinger in China!!

Bootlegging is nothing new, corporations selling alcohol underground= no taxes....cook the books , as they say.
 
Scarface never really died. That was just BS in the movie to throw everyone off track.
In reality he just got out of the drug business and started cloning all the famous mics.
More profitable, safer and it kept the feds off his ass.
 
rob aylestone said:
I'm more inclined to think that it's just a market economy force - see a market, go for it.
Click to expand...
I'm more to incline to think its a b stock manufacturing that didn't pass. Which when Shure was in the US, they relabeled their B-stock and sold it to Realistic/Radio Shack.
Because that style of manufacturing of finish on the threads, it would be coated and the threads cut, then later (possibly after an inspection) a final coat and the threads polished and the fake one in the video was rejected for mounting flaws.

But since Shure moved around, their capsules have changed and this might be the subtle difference between a Chinese and a Mexican manufactured capsule. The side rejection differences are from the capsule vertical mount and the air gap between the capsule and head basket. Which probably was the reason it was rejected into b stock.
 
drtechno said:
I'm more to incline to think its a b stock manufacturing that didn't pass. Which when Shure was in the US, they relabeled their B-stock and sold it to Realistic/Radio Shack.
Because that style of manufacturing of finish on the threads, it would be coated and the threads cut, then later (possibly after an inspection) a final coat and the threads polished and the fake one in the video was rejected for mounting flaws.

But since Shure moved around, their capsules have changed and this might be the subtle difference between a Chinese and a Mexican manufactured capsule. The side rejection differences are from the capsule vertical mount and the air gap between the capsule and head basket. Which probably was the reason it was rejected into b stock.
Click to expand...
Beware Mods! That could be libelous!

Dave.
 
drtechno said:
It really makes me wonder if someone is counterfeiting or if the CCP confiscates a manufacturing lot from a factory or distributor in China and the CCP is dumping it to upset the market. I know they do this to some who don't put 'made in China' on their products they manufacture there but assemble (supposedly) somewhere else.
Click to expand...
I worked for a large automotive electronics company with a manufacturing plant in CN. After visiting our plant and speaking to our engineers and vendors, I can tell you without a doubt, that virtually every manufacturer in CN will make parts for you, on your tooling, and turn around and sell the same thing out the back door to your competitor. We even had an authentic part come in for warranty, that was a bootlegged part. It was all made 100% from our tooling right down to the surface mount circuit. We determined it was fake, because it had an old version of software that was not used on this revision of the product.

Nobody has to confiscate or counterfeit anything. Many of the suppliers or vendors in CN are happy to sell you the authentic part or finished product. Sometime, you even get one with the authentic brand label too. Take a walk through the Copy Mart in Shanghai, every name brand item you can possibly think of, and some are from the brand manufacturer.
 
I’ve got some Behringer headphone amps. The ones with xlr on one end for line input and 3.5mm and volume on the other. Belt clip on the side. They’ve proven to be reall decent and reliable. One of my suppliers just offered me the same thing. I’ve ordered a few to see what they’re like. I bet these are like drtechno suggests, out the back door!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top