Holiday Mic sales

LazerBeakShiek

LazerBeakShiek

It is a life preserver
Anybody check out the around $100 microphone sales? Diamonds in the rough.

There were some pencil condensers by AKG the P170's less than $40 a piece. Couple of 170's could make a nice pencil set.

And an AKG P420 was about $125 shipped with a coupon. Dual capsule, multi pattern, LDC. Poor mans 414.

The AT-2020 was $79.00.

Anybody have anything positive to say about these or ones you found?
 
I've got the P170, had it for about a year. I haven't seen them for $40 a pop, tho. More like $80. I also have a pair of the Rode M5s and just picked up the Lauten LA120s.

The P170 is pretty good for the price. I've used it with acoustic guitar and was happy with the results. I just got the Lauten Audios, and haven't really gotten to check them out very much. Just some quick comparisons with a tambourine and a bit of vocals to make sure they work. Similar to the P170 on the high end, but a bit smoother. Sweetwater had them for $245 for a pair, with two capsules, cardioid and omni. The M5s are $200 a pair, but I had a 20% off coupon. They are a bit less pronounced on the high end in comparison, maybe a bit more natural sounding.

The AKG has a 20dB pad, which the Rode and Lautens don't. The Lauten had two setting for high and low pass settings tho, which might be nice for controlling bass or cymbals. The Rode M5s are bare bones, no pad or filters. They are sold as a matched pair tho.
 
The place still comes up on a search. I do not know if the deal is still on. Foreign billing. $39.99 ea.$ 5 s/h.

AKG PERCEPTION 170 Professional Instrumental Microphone [VWC96] - $39.99 : morclothes.com

The SDC 's are all gonna have a high self noise so these should be ok. The P170 should be good for a set of NEW pencils, way better than MXL brand.

That $79.99 At2020 is New, I think eBay has them at $69.99 Refurb. I was looking at new products. If you were going to hang some blankets and makes use of phantom power, this would be the entry model. Something to use when you have exhausted the SM58 and you want to taste the +48 power.

When looking at this price point the most important feature to focus is SELF NOISE. Under 16db is Ok. Under 10 is more like it. An AT2020 has 20db self noise at a weight spec as example. An AKG 414 XLS at $700 has about 5db self noise. That is an example of a great mic.

The AKG 420 was demo'd next to a AKG C214 and let me say I was underwhelmed with the C214 at $399. However the dual capsule multi pat P420 was a fantastic deal at about $125 shipped after coupon. A B ing the 2, A+B and back again I was surprised.

No coupon but they have a $20 instant savings at sweet water till the 31st.$ 179. Not too bad.
AKG P420 Large-Diaphragm Condenser Microphone | Sweetwater
 
Last edited:
I don't buy things direct from China. It might be fine, but there are to many counterfeiters out there. I much prefer to deal with Sweetwater, MF/GC, BH Photo, etc. Most of my mics have come from Sweetwater and a few from MF. I think I bought an MXL v67G off Ebay, and I've got a couple of MXL992s, one was a freebie when I bought my AW1600 Yamaha years ago. The other I picked up used.

If I want really low noise, I have my NT1.

M5 is 19dBA, the P170 is 19dBA, the Lauten is 15dBA.
I have a pair of 10 yr old Studio Projects B3s, which are 14dBA. The NT1 is 4dBA.

I get more noise from the house than I do from the mics. I was listening to a song I did for a friend (her birthday a few years back) and at the end of the guitar, you could hear an airplane's props as it flew by in the distance. I didn't hear it when I did the recording. That was done with the B3s. That's plenty low enough of a noise floor for me!
 
The NT-1A is a nice mic. Back when I was on a transformerless kick I wanted a mic with really low self noise. Then I would apply microphone simulator hardware to the transformer-less transparent mic. The NT-1 a has such a low self noise it does not sound like anything, really.

I built a transformer switch box that had 3-4 different transformers in it. Lundahl Sowter Cinemag, etc. Than fed the transformerless mic into the trans box like an effect. It did NOT work out too well but worth a mention.

The Mic simulators work ok , at least I can hear what they are trying to say is the character of the target mic. Works ok on a transformer less low noise mic.

MXL is not really prosumer grade. More like a last resort or substitute. Back when , I needed to mic my band. Had a 6 channel PA. So I went to GC to get 5-6 mic's cheapest they had. I was a teen. For $100 I got 5 MXL R40 ribbons. They were the worst sounding garbage ribbons I ever heard. I got it done , but it was not pretty. Ever since I stay away from MXL.

I have yet to see the NT-1a come down around $100 at BF sales. They hold their value around $200.

At that 200 price point I found the Senn MD-421 at $199 after coupon. It was $249 and 20% off. That is also a very popular microphone. I chose that P420( BF sale and coupon $108.84) but in hind sight I might have gotten more mileage out of that MD 421. Another case of more is more.
 
Last edited:
I went with the NT1, not the 1a. Didn't want the high end bump that the NT1a has. I've already got that covered with other mics.
 
Thats the better one, the nt-1.

For the diamonds in the rough list , I want to add the Senn e609 $79.99. A supercard that hangs in front on the guitar cabinet.
 
Here's a quick little mic test that I did this morning. Lined up 5 mics, got the levels matched as well as I could, and recorded a bit of acoustic guitar.
I included the P170, the LA120 that I just got, my Rode M5 and NT1, and for reference, an SM57.

I did two quick run through, muting all channels except for the chosen mic. The guitar was a Taylor 310ce, about 18" from the end of the fretboard. I have my opinion as to which sounds the closest to the actual guitar, but was curious what others might choose as the best.

I'm making it blind to start, just to eliminate any bias. And apologies to Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane!

Seconds in

Mic A 0 .. 46
Mic B 7 .. 53
Mic C 17 .. 59
Mic D 25 .. 65
Mic E 34 .. 72
 

Attachments

Just to clarify, Mic C is from 17 to 25 seconds and from 59-65 seconds. I did the flips about every 6-8 seconds. Likewise for the other mics. Mic A started at 0-7 and at 46-53.

Now that I look at it, formatting didn't come out the same as when I was putting the post together. It might be confusing.
 
TalismanRich said:
I was listening to a song I did for a friend (her birthday a few years back) and at the end of the guitar, you could hear an airplane's props as it flew by in the distance. I didn't hear it when I did the recording. That was done with the B3s. That's plenty low enough of a noise floor for me!
Click to expand...

lol..good story.
Add some compression and it will make the noise louder and the prop plane sound like a 747...
 
Just in case someone else wants to chime in, I'll wait until Thursday to post which mic are which in the above example.
 
OK,
FWIW

In the above Mic A was the SM57. Mic B was the Lauten LA120, Mic C was the AKG P170, Mic D was the Rode M5, and Mic E was the Rode NT1.

To me, judging from both headphones (AKG 240s and Sony 7506s, and on my JBL 308s), the NT1 sounded most like the actual guitar. The SM57 sounded open, but has a bit of a honky midrange, I though the P170 was dark, and the M5 was a bit light. The Lauten was second place for me. The differences were more apparent on headphones than on speakers.

If nothing else, it was a good exercise for me to characterize the new mics that I've picked up in the last 6 months. Its always good to have a reference point for when you're choosing mics.
 
I liked E the least, the NT1, it had a lot of low end which would be cut out at mix. In a solo track it might sound fuller, but in a mix all that 800hz and low boom would blurr the rest, imo.

D had the shimmer and the low end already removed. The high freqs are there, but not too much. Its sounded more like a SDC which it is. Interesting a lot of the SDC sound so similar.

A,B.C, probably would all be eq'd too. They seemed to have more of a unprocessed sound but similar. I was kind of hoping the SM57 would be my fav'. Some make them work but the "crisp highs" of the SDC and LDC are never there. Don't know the Lauten or P170...but the P series get a lot of compliments.

This was the second listen with DT880(250ohm) headphones, the other listen was Takstar671 headphones...I don't even have monitors hooked up anymore, in this closet room they don't tell me much, earbuds would be better.

Several articles on acoustic micing might use the Shure SM81 as a the "center point standard" or the Neumann KM84 even more so, if you can afford it.
Then everything else is based like Lighter or Darker or whatever it seems....as you mention a lot of times you cant hear much difference on the speakers. lol
 
Last edited:
I would love to have thrown in a nice KM84, except there's not one in my mic closet. :(

Since the original thread that LBS posted was about $100 mics, I thought I would throw those up. 4 of the mics were right at $100, the NT1 being the exception. On sale the Lauten was $125, and I grabbed it because it has both the cardioid and omni capsules. A pair was $250 +tax. The only other SD omni that I have is a VERY old AKG D160e. I bought a pair of those back in the late 70s. One died, but the other still works. I need to pull it out and see where it stands.

As for EQing to sit into the "mix", certainly the low end of the NT1 could be dropped, especially since I was recording a dreadnought. However, it sits pretty nice if you just have a singer/guitar, as it gives a bit of bottom.

In any case, its nice to have lots of different screwdrivers in the tool chest, right?
 
I totally missed the $100 first line...youre right.

$100.

even the KM84 probably gets eq, so thats not anything bad. I doubt I could tell much in a blindfold test most the time too, move the mic an inch and its different, for example.

whats the goal though? to get a track without eq , without hassle, that doesnt pickup the bad part of the room, that doesnt pick up too many airplanes flying by... :)
 
Not a problem. Yeah, the KM184 should be a $trong performer and the Shure SM81 would round out the SDC's comparison.

What LDC's have you got? By any chance have you collected the AT2020(no longer at $79 for the holidays boooo) or perhaps the 2035 is the better one, or an AKG P220? A few in a test like above would be cool. I was looking at the 2035 with lower self noise(12db) but settled on the P420.

A Senn MD421 needs to be in there somewhere too. They sound great.

The P420 by AKG is a nice representation of the multi pattern LDC. To get a multi pattern dual capsule LDC from brands like, AT or Shure or AKG or Rode or Blue get expensive fast. Not even MXL had something multi pat at the $100 price point. The AKG P420 sounds great at $108.84 in omni, cardio , or 8.

The $39 P170's I ordered , an order confirmation and tracking number were sent. They are coming but they must have shipped them the long way around the world. Mid Jan-early Feb according to the tracking info. I am hoping they sound great like the P170's you did.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top