Sennheiser vs... Radio Shack??

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tf5_bassist

The LouDogg
Alright... You all are familiar with these Sennheisers... You're also probably vaguely familiar with the Radioshack "instrument" mics... they retailed for $50 when they were being carried. I've discussed 'em with a few others around here (i don't remember who, but someone here was an RS manager at one point?). They look EXACTLY like the Senns in question. I've been wondering for years since I started working there... Are they the same mics, just for WAY cheaper?
 
i've not heard the RS ones

but i've heard the Senns. I like the senns a lot and if i close-mic'd my drums or had congas to mic in a live/tracking environment, they'd be the first choice. if i were just micing congas with nothing else around, i'd prolly use some SDCs.

do a search for this question it was discussed just a month or two ago--someone found RS blowing out the remainder of their stock (they were discontinued) for $15 each or something and wanted to let us know about it.

The general consensus from that thread was that they were NOT the same mic and that, while usable, the RS mics sounded far less pleasing, a lot more harsh and weren't nearly as versatile.


YMWV,
wade
 
Hey,

I posted the alert a couple of months ago. I personally like the RS mics, but I'm used to shit, so I can't say they have anything on the e604 or any other Sennheiser mic.

But for $15, what do you expect? Just a bit cheaper than a Sennheiser...if anything, they definitely have a place on the stage, if not the studio.
 
I participated in that thread a couple of months ago. I own two Sennheiser e604's and now nine (9) RS 33-3032's. The capsules are almost identicle. I had at one point 18 of the Radio Shack mics and I sold nine of them to musician friends (one here AAMOF) The Radio Shack mics were inconsistent, but the ones that I kept have a sound that is consistent with my e604's. I have heard all of the rumors about them being made for Radio Shack by Sennheiser, but I have no ptoof of that, so it's just rumors (who knows? Could be true).

We initially found out about these mics in thread from Harvey Gerst over a year ago, who reccommended them as a very good cheap alternative to the e604.
I'm very pleased with how mine perform on rack toms, and for live stage drum mics for kit and for hand drums (djembe an doumbek on the skin side).
 
I've also used the RS mics on toms and tried it on snare. On the smaller toms, the RS mics do a decent job. The only drawback is not a lot of low end... but that can be dialed in if you need it. For larger toms or floor toms, they're somewhat useable, but a different mic is in order.

On snare, for the particular sound I was going for, it was decent. Nothing to write home about, but certainly it didn't suck. All in all, the RS mics are a good deal for the blowout price of $15. I've got three and bought a few for my church.

I don't have the Sennheiser mics, so I can't comment on how the RS mics compare. But, on its face, the RS mics are a good deal at the price and certainly does an admirable job for certain limited jobs.
 
So what, a cow terd and a pizza are kind of alike. They are both round and both are steamy, but which would you eat. Save up a little more and just get the sen's. You will be better in the long run. And you wont wind up with a horrible look on your face (applies to both instances).
 
They do NOT look exactly alike, and the RS ones do NOT sound as good as the Sennheisers. I have used both, and I still have two of the 604s. The RS mics are inconsistent, noticably so, and since you can get 604s on ebay for $50 ( I paid $50 each for several of them) there is no excuse.
 
Well, I have NOT used a Senn 604, but i HAVE used the RS 33-3032 (Thanks for reminding me of the SKU, i was beating myself senseles over that!) extensively, and yes... not enough low-end of course... For kickdrum it's crap... for bass cab mic'ing, it's alright, i guess... But it didn't have the low end that the nady cheap-ass kick mic had.

But yeah... $15 for these things are not bad at all. The good thing about 'em is they ARE very quiet in my book.
 
tubedude said:
They do NOT look exactly alike, and the RS ones do NOT sound as good as the Sennheisers. I have used both, and I still have two of the 604s. The RS mics are inconsistent, noticably so, and since you can get 604s on ebay for $50 ( I paid $50 each for several of them) there is no excuse.
Click to expand...

I didn't say that they looked exactly alike, I said that the capsules inside looked very much alike.
Two of the managers fom Radio Shack that I know from two differnt stores related a "tale" to me about how these mics were made for RS by Sennheiser with the agreement that they would be sold in sets of three for a retail price of $150-200. Radio Shack marketed them individually at $49 and Sennheiser had a cow and "pulled the plug" on the deal. So that is the "tale" and the "rumor" that has been going around. I do know that RS regularly deals with established audio manufacturers and has them make items for them. Most of their "higher end" (:D ) mics are made for them by Shure.

I've held onto nine of the ones that I bought. If I put the capsules in a gray housing and printed on them in German, you'd swear up and down you were listening to a "class" mic and you'd be willing to pay the $50 for it. Just like if you take an early 1990's Camry and change the body and interior a little bit you can sell it as an early 90's Lexus.

Radio Shack is still blowing these out at $14.97 when you can find them.I've even purchased two for $20. They certainly don't work for everything, but they work real well on higher frequency drums.
 
Yeah, i heard something similar to this as well, but I wasn't to sure on the authenticity of it, as the manager who told me I really didn't enjoy working for very much.

And these things are becoming WAAAY hard to find nowadays, at least in the Northern Cali area. I swear, before i got fired last october, i had every manager i could find trying to ICST me some lol
 
NEW Sennheiser mics

The evolution series just got bigger
the e815 / e816 and the e817
Inexpensive quality mics........good for home use.......
You get what you pay for......the new e903 from sennheiser is amazing....you cannot go wrong with this one....
PREV.....
 
Well, I had a bunch here... those things say made in phillipines on them, I can assure you that Sennheiser didnt make them.
Also, as I said I had a bunch here, and not one of them had anything similar to the clarity of the Sennheisers. Not even close really, each sounded veiled in some weird way. Perhaps the capsules were made by Senn, but thats not the be all end all by any means.
The Sennheisers sound quite good comapred to those.

I just dont have it in me to recommend mics to people and make them think they are getting something they are not. Those RS mics do not cut the Sennheiser mustard, and I had about 10 of them to sort through. QC was non-exisistent.
 
tubedude said:
Well, I had a bunch here... those things say made in phillipines on them, I can assure you that Sennheiser didnt make them.
Also, as I said I had a bunch here, and not one of them had anything similar to the clarity of the Sennheisers. Not even close really, each sounded veiled in some weird way. Perhaps the capsules were made by Senn, but thats not the be all end all by any means.
The Sennheisers sound quite good comapred to those.

I just dont have it in me to recommend mics to people and make them think they are getting something they are not. Those RS mics do not cut the Sennheiser mustard, and I had about 10 of them to sort through. QC was non-exisistent.
Click to expand...

I'm not questioning your sincerity, in fact in a way I might even agree with you to an extent.
Are you or were you using them on
drums? I sorted through the 18 that I had and found ones that I wanted to keep that acted real well on specific drums and I've labelled them for those drums. I agree that consistency and quality control is a real issue with these mics, but when you've matched them to the drum (not a whole lot of octave changes in a drum) damned if these cheap little e604 copies don't perform really well. In live shows. I use them on all of my toms except my 18" floor tom when I use my AT Pro 25 or my Audix F12.
I inherited one of my RS 330-3032's from a friend that bought it to use on guitar and absolutely hated it (it really sucks on guitar) I know someone else that bought one to use as a
vocal mic (dumb idea). Others were promoting it as a kick mic. (really dumb idea, can't handle that kind of bass or SPL's). But if you sort through you can nicely match them up with toms and hand drums and they really do perform well. I also own e604's and I love them. I use mine on snare. They are all different, and some of them probably suck,but I guess I've been lucky. Even the ones that I sold were good mics. I kept the ones I liked the best for my drums.
 
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