Mics are like shoes. They either fit, or they don't. There are expensive ones and cheap ones, good ones and bad ones, *and* right ones and wrong ones. It's simply a tool. In order to pick the right tool, you need to know what the job is. The best pair of ballet toe shoes in the world suck for playing ice hockey. So- tell us what your realistic budget is, what you intend to plug the mic into, what you intend to record with it, and what kind of room you intend to do it in. Top studios have *hundreds* of microphones, ranging from $50 to many thousands of $. If there was one great universal microphone, they would just buy a couple of those, and get rid of the rest. What makes it even worse is- a mic can make one source/person sound great, and another one awful. Anyone who gives you an answer to a question that has no answer is either lying, confused, or just busting your ass. This thread already contains all of the above.