Røde NTK vs. Marshall V69?

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Speeddemon

Speeddemon

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Hey guys, here in Holland a store has the NTK for 299 euro's (around $400) and the V69 for 289 euro's ($385).

Anyone compared these two? What did you like and didn't you like?

I'd like a nice affordable tube condenser in my small mic cab.
 
I love it when you post! That's such a greast avatar!. Anyway, I'm actually looking to get some feedback on the NTK as well. Maybe this thread will help both of us out. I know Richie highly recommends them.
 
I can't personally speak for the NTK, but I have a Rode K2, also a tube mic, that I've changed the stock tube with a NOS Telefunken and it sounds great! I wouldn't think of recording vocals with anything else I've got...

Just my .02 worth...
 
I like both...

I have both of those mics and they are very different in their sound "styles"...both have their strong points (and weaknesses)...the NTK is more neutral...kinda like "what goes into the mic, is what will come out of your monitors"...pretty true to the source...the V69M on the other hand, has more of the "shine" common to the Chinese LD condenser mics...more bright and colored, but still very pleasing...the V69M seems to me to have more of the "toob" sound people talk about...I would say that the NTK is more versatile...the old MXL V77s (discontinued) is more like the NTK in it's clean, neutral sound...the weak points, IMHO, would be the NTK sounding a bit "boring" on certain voices/sources...on the other hand the V69M can sound a bit "hyped"...the build quality is the bigger issue...at such similar price points, I gotta give the Rode the edge...it's built like a tank!...more durable over the long run...so, all in all, I give the Rode the "thumbs up", but I would recommend the V69M as an addition sometime in the future (or at least it's "little brother" the V67G)...Good Luck!

Here's an interesting thread on the Rodes tube mics and the tube upgrades as mentioned above...
http://www.recording.org/ftopic-23078-15.html
 
after a few weeks of research i went ahead and got the ntk. just received it yesterday for $375 brand new thru ebay. i comes w/ this giant hardshell case too-most i saw on ebay did not include the case, but its nice to have.

going to try it out tonite after work. from what i read this was the ideal mic for me. i wanted one good mic for voice, acoustic and even drum overhead/room.

the only downside/negative i heard was that high voices dont always sound good, but im more of a quieter midrange so it should be good for me. also heard it will make some sound like j-timberland or b-spears-not sure what that means though, but im scared!

i have been home-recording for over 10 years, but just went digital w/ a tascam 2488 a few months back. ive had a sure sm48 and a sure bg2.1 for awhile now. they have worked adequately for what i do. got fairly decent drum sounds out of them, but since ive gone digital i really want better mics. recently got an akg d-112 for bass drum and bass guitar (most suprised about the bass guitar sound-i love it) and the ntk should be all i need for what i do (at least for the time being).

ill be experimenting w/ voice, acoustic and maybe drums tonite and ill post my findings...
 
Speeddemon said:
Hey guys, here in Holland a store has the NTK for 299 euro's (around $400) and the V69 for 289 euro's ($385).

Anyone compared these two? What did you like and didn't you like?

I'd like a nice affordable tube condenser in my small mic cab.
Click to expand...

We've owned both of these mics for nearly two years now and use both of them quite often in our studio. There isn't anything we "don't like" about either of them, because they are both great bang-for-you-buck microphones. That being said, the NTK has an incredibly sweet, harmonic sound to it once that tube gets nice and warm, and it edges out the V69 in detail. The V69 tends to sound smoother and better on higher female vocals and bright acoustic guitars (with a maple back and sides), but the NTK is better on everything else. Overall, the NTK is our workhorse. We use it for all male vocals and the majority of female vocals. The V69 gets some use from time to time on the afformentioned applications, but it's mostly a backup in case the NTK craps out for some reason (which it never has). Go for the NTK. I guarantee you'll fall in love with it when you hear how nice and sweet it sounds.
 
comments like buck's are what brought me to the ntk. tried mine out last night. i had to let it warm up for about 45 minutes though. its brand new, so as i use it more will the tubes warm quicker? will it always take at least 30 minutes before its at optimal warmth?

my voice sounded like it never has before thru this. keep in mind what i was using before though (sm-48 and bg2.1 - both about 6 or 7 years old). anyway, all the little neuances and "hidden" tones came out on recordings. it is warm and bright at the same time. i can see how it wouldnt be a great mic for women or high-pitched vox though. im a mid-range at best and it really kicks it up for me.

acoustic was superb as well (again, keeping in mind previous mics!). i have a early 80's ibanez performance dreadnought. my gramps is a guitar player and when i wanted to start playing about 15 years ago he bought me this and its the only acoustic ive ever had. has a very rich, full tone and the mic brought it out much better than ive ever heard it.

ill be trying it out on drums (room) sometime soon too, but im really happy with it so far.
 
cool!
I'll be checking the NTK out then.

I got about 600 euro's saved, but I still need the following
SP B3 (2nd one)
pair of good SD condensers (NT-5, C-4? )
AT ATM25 (for kick or floortom. I got 2 MD-421's already)
a patchbay (Samson S-Patch + perhaps)

and then I can record almost anything. ;-) (at least a whole band at a time)
 
More on the NTK

I just picked up an NTK off ebay last week. It has an amazing ability to capture everything going on. And this really was a surprise to me, as I've been doing tracks in my basement (unfinished) with an older EV40 mic. I noticed right away that it was picking up all audio, even the hum of my Adat only 8 feet away, in addition to the furnace, 10 feet the other way, which I'll now have to completely isolate somehow. I'll have to do more tests with it to see what I can do with it for vocals. My voice is mid-range also, but can sound rough at times. This sensitive mic could be good (or bad) for that. We'll see. Once I build a real studio space, I think it will be a fine mic.
 
The NTK is a great mic. I've used it on pretty much everything. So far no one has mentioned that the NTK has a pretty well documented upper midrange bump. Good for some things, not so good for others....a little eq can easily compensate for this however, and in my opinion the quality of the mic far outwheighs this one little issue. I actually didn't realize how good this mic is on vocals until I tried a few of the other mics that I've added to my arsenal on vocals. One of the really great things about the NTK is the power supply that it uses. It is a very good power supply and consequently the mic doesn't need a lot of preamp gain, which keeps the noise level nice and low.

As to Fuzzy Math's question, yes you should always give it at least 30 minutes to warm up. I'd give it 45 just to be safe.
 
Just wait till the mic is warm to the touch, it's a great piece at that price!
 
uh huh

I have to say that I thik the NTK is one of the finest mics I have ever used. It's quite unflattering - only a slight top end boost but nothing else really. It just has a really smooth sound and is very versatile. I absolutely love it and would not use anything else for vocals. M.
 
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