Those dirt cheap condensers someone posted about

T

Tomm Williams

New member
Recall a post not long ago about these $30-ish LDC's on Ebay from China. Has anyone actually tried one out ? No one in their right mind could expect a great mic but I have seen very cheap mics that performed well beyond their price point.

Not long ago I ordered a number of $40 headsets for my AT3000 units as back ups, they turned out being incredible sounding mics for the money. I now find myself in a position where 4-6 extra LDC's would be helpful, just wondering ..................................

If all else fails, I'll order one and let you guys know what I think.
 
I've been importing mics for quite a few years, and as yet, have not had any that were anything other than rather good. I always keeps some for my mic box, and I use many of these myself, and while they're bright, compared to a European mic, they're useful and worthy mics. I've given up about people slagging Chinese mics off - but in five years or so - I've had two with easily fixed dry joints, and one that just sounded strange. That's not bad at all. I'd suggest you buy a few and try them out - I've only learned to avoid cheap dynamics and anything USB - everything else has been well worth it. I sell direct and on ebay, and the strange thing is that people often buy one, then come back to buy more - which is always good. For some strange reason I've been sending quite a few to South Africa!
 
OK, made some progress on this. Buddy in Reno who operates a pretty nice little studio just got one of these, the BM700. Price with shipping was a whopping $22.06 (AFAIK) He has quite a bit of experience in both recording and live sound with a decent inventory for comparisons.

I'll be going over to his place in a couple weeks with a brand new AT2020 to compare it to. Picked the 2020 as (IMO) it's one of those "bare minimum" mics for me. His initial opinion just playing with it was it was surprisingly better sounding than he expected and had so much output gain that it would do well to have a pad (it doesn't).He also found it had an unusually tight pattern, more so than a "typical" cardioid. My reason for wanting to try these out is I work with a 60+ piece orchestra that I could use a few extra budget LDC's (providing they are not dog doo) to help out when all my pricey stuff gets utilized. Maybe these will work..... maybe not ?

Stay Tuned
 
It operates with phantom and the cord isn't needed except to use with a computer or such. The mic still has an XLR male connector like any other mic.
 
Btyre2013 said:
you are working with a 60 piece orchestra and want to use a $30 mic...
Click to expand...

Do you really think I got the job by providing sub-par equipment and services ? As already (clearly) stated, this is an experiment to determine IF this mic could be useful under the right circumstances.
 
Finally got around to doing a side-by-side comparison of these mics to a known quality mic. The "standard" I selected for bare minimum was the AT2020 which is not a bad mic at all for $100. I decided early on that if these Chinese mics couldn't make a favorable comparison to a 2020, they were paperweights.

Well the good new is they did but.................................

Handling noise is very high in these mics and self noise is too high for critical recording. They also exhibited an odd characteristic in that if you tapped the side of them, you would get a distinct ringing at a specific frequency. The two BM700's being tested rang at frequencies different from each other.

For me this isn't a big issues as I do live work only and the mics are still quieter than any venue I've ever worked. In regards to detail and clarity, while the 2020 had better detail, I actually preferred the sound of the BM700 as it was warmer with a bit less bite than the AT's. The test tone was a Takamine 12 string with the mics set around the 12th fret, one foot away.

All in all, it is hard to believe these are $22-ish mics. Now will they hold up to live use ? Who knows but at least IMO, these mics were well worth the money to have a few spares in case I run out of good mics.
I think they compared very favorably to the 2020. Sounded nearly as good but different.
 
The Tascam is one of the mics I import! I buy them as white box products with the brand name box empty. They are actually rather good mics. The body is a polycarbonate and is pretty tough, but inside is a metal shielded housing for the electronics. The mic element is more accurately described as hyper-cardioid or super-cardioid, it is noticeably narrower than a normal cardioid. All the ones I've used myself and sold have been 100% reliable and I like the sound - very crisp and clean. They have a decent dynamic range and are quite happy on guitar cabs if you need them to do that. Stereo pairs work rather well, as you can get them a little further away. The stand clamp is a bit fragile, but does the job. Tascam certainly don't make it, nor do the other big names I've seen on them. However - that price is lower than I buy them for, which is worrying!
 
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