B1 or 603 for acoust AND voc?

[notCardio]

I respectfully disagree...

I'm not saying you can't hear a difference between mics in a store, but unless they have a little quiet studio setup, I don't think that what you will hear will in any way represent what it will sound like at home. Now, if they DO have such a setup, and will let you bring the mic pre you'll be using, and you can record something there, and preferably listen to it on monitors that at least approximate what you've got, or better yet, take that recording home to listen on your setup, then you've got a shot. I'm not saying all this to be assinine, but if you take an sm57, run it into an Avalon, and listen on to it on Genelecs, you're gonna be impressed as hell. Then when you get it home and plug it into your Fostex 4-track, and listen to it on your boom box, you're gonna wonder what the hell happened. Or, like me, I listened to some very high end mics, as well as low end, at a local music superstore. All I heard was the crowd noise, the music blasting throughout the store, the drum department next door, and the subs from the dj area. I concluded that the ones I liked the best were the least sensitive ones. I absolutely hated the 414 and the U87i. Now, I'm sure that under the proper conditions, that would not be the case, but I sure don't have the money to take that kind of chance since they had a 'no return' policy on mics.

Or, maybe I'm deaf. All I can say is, I guess I wish I had DJL's ears, but I'm guessing you (sjino) don't have them either.

I say take Alan up on his offer. And he didn't say don't audition them first, just the opposite. He said audition them in the privacy of your own home, your own way, at your own pace, then decide. For all he knows, you'll be sending back HIS mic, but he must be pretty confident in his product to take that chance. If the dealer he hooks you up with has the mics you're trying to decide between, and will let you return what you don't like, what have you got to lose?

Let us (well, me at least) know what you chose and why. I'm addicted to information overkill, as well as rambling posts.

 

[notCardio]

And one more thing...

Be sure and check out Taylorguitarman's thread here entitled 'Amatuer mic shootout'. Although it was done on nylon string, which is admittedly a whole different animal, it might give you some insight. If not, it's at least interesting, and maybe you can ask him a thing or two.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[DJL]

Re: I respectfully disagree...

I'm not saying you can't hear a difference between mics in a store

Thank Goodness.

By the way... if you do a search on this mic forum you will find some very helpful tips about auditioning mics in music stores and etc, posted by Harvey Gerst and others.

 

[chessrock]

The only ones I can think of who don't want us to audition mics before we buy them are distributors who mostly just sell their mics over the internet and don't have thier mics in all the music stores so we can audition them.

 

[sjino]

Thanks to everyone for the many helpful replies. I appreciate it.

S.

 

[jeffree]

Sjino, looks like you received the royal treatment, even hearing from one of the mics' distributors. I'd second the vote for the B1 as a good all-purpose budget mic; I have two of them after doing some listening & researching, and I'm very pleased.

By the way, I also found it very frustrating trying to hear *anything* while auditioning mics in stores--just too much background noise. Whenever possible, I buy two or three top brands of any product (mic or otherwise) I'm considering to audition in my home studio. There, I can hear differences quickly.

Good luck,

J.

P.S. Alan, good to see you posting again at this site, which is rather famous for its strong opinions, justified or not. Yours is usually a voice of reason, regardless of your PMI affiliation.