Are these condensors a good buy?

[powderfinger]

Currently I have a Shure-58 and a small clip on condensor for my acoustic. I saw the following at musiciansfriend.com website. It is two condensors for under $200. I don't know much about mics other than the fact that I need more of them, and preferably one that does good vocals. Is MXL a good brand? Are these good mics? What can I use them for? Any info would be great. Here is the ad......

2 great mics at a very affordable price!

The MXL2001 has a crisp, open sound that makes it ideal for use in professional and project studios as well as a variety of live applications. A 1" gold-sputtered diaphragm is coupled through an electromagnetic screen to an FET pre-amp with a balanced transformer output. Features a cardioid polar pattern, and a frequency response of 30Hz to 20kHz. The new MXL603S microphone is a small-diaphragm cardioid condenser mic that's wired with world-famous Mogami wire for stunning sonic transparency. It has a 20mm gold-deposited diaphragm and a frequency response of 20Hz to 25kHz. Harvey Gerst of Indian Trail Recording Studio says of the 603, "It's a flat out winner".

Features:

Package includes:
MXL2001 large diaphram condenser
MXL603S small diaphragm condenser

 

[Randy Yell]

The Mxl 2001p is harsh sounding IMO.I've had one quite a while and I havn't used it in over a year as I really can't stand the sound of it.There is a modification that can be done to improve it but it is fairly involved and would cost a minimum of $40.In my opinion any mic that you have to modify to make it sound decent is not worth buying.

The 603 on the other hand is supposed to be a very nice mic,but you would be much better off buying it seperately instead of packaged with the POS Mxl2001p.8th Street music sells the 603 seperately for around $80 but Shreve Audio had them for $50 for a limited time not very long ago.It pays to search for the best price.

For a vocal mic the Marshall V67 is supposed to be quite nice.Mars Music has the V67m for $99,many people on this forum use this mic and swear by it.For another inexpensive option,Studio Projects is releasing the B-Series any day now.The series includes the B-1(Not to be confused with the Behringer B-1) which will have a street price of $79.

Another inexpensive option for acoustic guitar is the Behringer ECM8000.The ECM is a small diameter omni reference mic that does a very good job at drum overheads and also does a decent job on acoustic.They sell for $35 ea (Musician's Friend).

All of these mics require phantom power,the M-Audio Audio Buddy is an inexpensive($80)two channel solid state mic preamp/direct box.The phantom power on the Audio Buddy is stated at 40v(measured at 41.4v)but people have used the Audio Buddy with the above mics(and many others)with good results.I find the Audio Buddy to be very clean and natural sounding with plenty of gain.

 

[darrin_h2000]

I suppose they are ok for micing up amps at 4ft away and the 603 goes up close, but as a vocal mic the 2001 is the sonic equivilent of the scm900 by nady. you will be beter off just buying the 603 for 50.00 and a v67 for 99.00.