Impulse bought a WA87 (thoughts and questions)

[DrewPeterson7]

tl;dr - the Warm Audio Mystery Box sale, where I got the one and only mic I didn't need, a WA14, and ended up giving it to my dad, ultimately didn'y scratch the "new studio gear" itch, so I sarted thinking about some sort of a U87 clone as an alternate mic on my acoustic, and one maybe a little better suited for single note lines. I was reasonably impressed with the WA14 for the money in the short time I had it, so when one of their authorized dealers did a B-stock sale with cosmetic blemishes but functionally guaranteed for $200 off, I decided to jump on one.

First off, a very nice looking mic:

Only cosmetic damage I could see was a tiny (3mm?) C-shaped scratch where the matte finish was scuffed to a gloss, and a faint hairline scratch on the (surprisingly nice) wooden case.

Impressions, from opening it and farting around for 20 minutes:

• I've never held a real Neumann U87, but this thing is HEAVY. I was surprised. Very substantial.
• It could be my imagination, but it seems to have a stronger proximity effect than most mics I've used? It has a very pronounced increase in the "punch" to the low end as it gets closer to the body of my guitar.
• It seems to favor a slightly different position than the se4400 or VR1 I've mostly used on my acoustic in the past - the neck joint 14th fret still works very well, but whereas usually I've had good luck with a mic level and head on there, maybe angled slightly towards the body, here it sounded better to me a couple inches above that point, angled down a little.

Shitty hastily recorded clip, with a double IPA and a stiff pour of bourbon on board, after my daughter's bedtime and cleaning up the kitchen. Please don't expect brillliance, haha.

tiny bit of plate reverb and then a Boz Labs Wall 2 to boost it up to "commercial" value, no EQ.

So, the two questions:

1. IS it my imagination, or do different condenser designs sometimes have different sensitivity to proximity effect and a Neumann-style mic tends to be stronger than average?
2. The storage case is very nice, but only large enough for the mic. The box it all came in, meanwhile, is huge, and a little larger than I'd prefer to keep. For those of you with extensive mic collections, do you usually store them in the boxes they came in or just anyting that had a storage case leave it in there, but hardware like shock mounts leave loose? Genuinely curious.

(Oh, and also, I couldn't tell you at gunpoint how it compares to an OG Neumann beyond "probably in the right ballpark" based on some of the comparisons I've heard. In a vacuum I'd love to own the real thing, but at nearly $4k, for a guy who doesn't sing, records instrumental guitar rock, and wants something for acoustic solos and melody lines, there's no way I'd get my money's worth out of one. And for the price I don't mind putting it in front of a loud guitar amp to see how it does there. End of the day, it's a cool looking mic that has an overall "color" that was pretty much what I was hoping to hear, and it'll be a fun tool to have in the arsenal).

 

[Papanate]

The WA U87 clone is within reason - A real U87 tends to have U87 has more presence, more air, more “sparkle” as it were - but also has some kind of EQ sound to it - The WA87 is very close, it sounds more "natural” I think - and you can match the U87 with a little EQ anyway - I wouldn’t spend the money on the Neumann U87 if I didn’t already
have one - but I bought mine a while ago - got it for a song - literally - Gave a guy an original tune which he loved - I never heard it anywhere so I don’t know what happened to it.

 

[PorterhouseMusic]

A couple of comments...

That looks like the R2 version you've got. I've compared and think that they are definitely an improvement on the first generation WA87. To my ears anyway. I sold a mint first generation WA87 last year and am regretting it. I'm just not as happy with my acoustic guitar captures since dumping that mic. So I am again on the hunt for a deal on the R2 version to see if that'll get me back to my happy place.

I keep all of my mics in the "coffins" or bags that are typically provided. But also - as much of a hassle that it can be - I keep and store ALL of my gear boxes. And let me tell you.... I've got a shit ton of boxes.

Regarding the WA87 comparing to the U87 - I think at this point it's sort of understood that these mics that are meant to emulate their much higher priced counterparts don't necessarily do that - in the sense that I think a lot of folks are looking for. And they very well might ballpark the gear they're meant to emulate, but....

How I've come to look at these "emulations" is from this point of view: Is this a piece of gear that serves a purpose for me? Is it useful? And with mics - since I've got a choice - how do mics serve different purposes? I bought the first gen. WA87 because I wanted a U87. I learned pretty quick that it was never going to be that. But what I found after using it for a few years and comparing it to others that I owned or borrowed - was that it was a very good, very capable mic on it's own - with it's own unique character.

Looks/sounds like you did well with this purchase.

Best wishes.