Well, that was a shock to me!
Well, I'm a mic newbie, so I thought it would be interesting to hear my views, as I have no experience of what any of these mics sound like. I'm just judging what I hear.
I listened to the 4 clips just once, and tried not to analyse what I was hearing. I then had a quick compare by listening to the first 2 secs of each clip.
When I first listened to it, I thought I was listening in order of cheap to expensive - i.e. shure clip 1 and blueberry clip 4. It was a big suprise to me!!
So...in order of worst to best...
Clip 2 - the blueberry! This sounded like the cheapest one to me....little did I know...hehe
Clip 1 - MXL - sounded a bit rounder to me. It was quite close between this and the blueberry though. Interestingly, the MXL is actually more expensive than the AT4033 in the UK. Cheapest I've found it is for £220, and you can get the 4033 for £200.
Clip 3 - SM58 - I thought this was the 4033. Sounded nice and a bit warmer than clip 1. Very suprised it was the shure mic.
Clip 4 - 4033. I was sure this was the expensive one. Sounded warm and full. Man...I love this mic.
So...interesting results. I know it's very subjective. Stick someone with a different voice on it, or change one of the links in the chain, and it could have been a different story....but I think I've made my mind up about which mic will be my 1st. I loved the sound of the 4033 in Bluebear's acoustic guitar. I thought it was the best by far. Now I've heard it with vocals, I think I've comfirmed myself as an AT man
It's interesting how everyone has different opinions on which they like. I guess I'm learning that it's pointless asking questions like which is the best vocal mic out of x y and z, because it comes down to personal choice. I'm sure some people didn't like the sound of the 4033 because it's not the sound they're looking for.
Even so, I have to say that the differences were not huge, and I think you could get good results out of all of them for different applications.....I guess that goes towards the assertion that there is no direct correlation between price and quality.
This may be a bit contraversial, but when you've got decent mics, like the ones tested, they could all be used for proffesional recording, and the view of a newbie like me, is just as vaild as a record producer with 10 platinum albums under his belt. It's just comes down to what you hear with your ears, and no amount of experience can change that, IMO. One person may criticise the dullness of the mic, while someone else might think it's the dog's cohonas (sp?)!
And anyway, you can never have too many mics now can you!
