I use a 435 as my main ldc. Seriously, this is not a joke. I don't have the cash for anything better (I mean, really, it sounds absolutely incredible, and you have to do very little if any equing to make it sit perfectly in the mix for female lead vocals of the type that I produce most of the time). I also own other mics, some of them are pretty famous (sennheisers, shures, etc), but no other LDCs. It may not have the velvety sound of some other ldcs, it may not have the warmth of very expensive tube mics, it may not be as solidly built as more expensive mics, but it does happen to sound a lot like a Neumann TLM 103 (who's circuit it copies), although a spec brighter and with a few odd phase shifts. Do the irregularities make it a bad sounding mic? Not at all, I love it's sound and it is another character mic to add to one's collection. It's also VERY quiet, transformerless, etc etc. I'm looking into getting a custom modded 460 tube right now (not an original, the modded kind that are neumann killers), but I find no reason to avoid a 435. For $55 right now at L&M I'm going to pick up a couple more to add to my collection.
The biggest issue with apex mics (and SP and AT and MXL and other chinese made mics) is that the QA process is terrible, so one mic will sound great, the next off the assembly line will sound terrible, etc etc. You have to buy one, try it out, see what you think, and honestly I would expect to return it once or twice before finding the one that sounds perfect to your ears. I've been lucky that way, but generally speaking that is one good way to save money. Buy the stuff made in china and spend your time exchanging it for a great sounding one rather than paying 2 to 4 times as much for the same sounding mic with better qa in the manufacturing process.
Just my opinion however - something that works for me as I try to save my pennies. If you can afford to spend more it certainly is nice to buy something that you know will sound perfect out of the box!
I just can't afford that kind of thing (although I do like to buy used major name mics whenever possible rather than new cheaper ones for that very reason).
435? Great mic - but use your ears - if it doens't sound great out of the box then don't feel bad about exchanging it for one that does (L&M expect it from you if you are confident when you return it for exchange - they know the problems with chinese mic manufacturing...).
Don
