I came as close as placing the order for a pair of CM6's, but Macmidimusic failed to honor their online price, and tried to jack it up. Grrr. The price just got too high, and I wound up with a pair of Neumann KM184's. Are they Schoeps? No. Do I like them? Yes. They are lovely as a remote stereo pair, good on guitar and violin. But see? it all goes in levels. For just acoustic guitar, I like large diaphragm condensers, that's just me. But I've had my best luck on violin and viola with small diaphagm mics. I like Oktava MC012 for cheap. Appropriate mics for what you want to do vary from about $40 apiece (Behringer ECM8000) to $1250 apiece or so (Schoeps/DPA and the like), and of course vintage ribbons are favored for violin and they can cost much, much more. Going up by grades, I like Studio Projects C-4 ($300/pr), Shure SM81 ($650/pr), Josephson C42 (I think a pair is about $1100 or so) . The price on the Oktavas varies wildly depending on the source and how well they are matched, if at all. I have a pair I bought at GC for $500 each, and they are perfectly usable mics. You pays your money and chooses your poison. -Richie