On Friday 12 July 2013 22:29:50 Kevin Cosgrove did opine: > Last year one of our Pickathon (shameless plug, pickathon.com) > sound crew was asked to pick up an SM58 on the way to load-in for > the weekend. He did that, but he also picked up a Sennheiser > e840 ($130USD). There was no comparison. The Sennheiser was > much clearer and was less prone to feedback than the SM58. The > 58 went back to the store, and the e840 stayed up, along with the > guy buying another e840. Next time I need a vocal mic I'll get > an e945 ($220USD), a step up from the e840. > > I'm also familiar with Beyer Dymamics, which are fabulous, but > about $300USD. The e840s have a bit more presence in the vocal > sweet spot, and have a hotter signal by 6-10dB. The Beyer's are > also much nicer sounding than the SM58. We also use AKG 330s, > and the Sennheiser keeps up with them too. > > The advantage, as far as I can tell, of an SM58, is that a drunk > singer can drop them from the stage onto concrete 2m below, > and they're likely to still sound the same. Also, they don't > sound all that bad to start with, and they're not too expensive > ($100USD). For live sound there's a lot to be said for cheap and > indestructible. In a studio someone might want a bit more. > Indestructible is a pretty strong word. Quite a few years ago when I was the CE at a tv station, I'd convinced TPTB that the mic situation in news was untenable, and with a lot of yelling and screaming, got perms to by 6 of them, so we'd have one for each camera crew and one spare. Two things. Every time one of them was laid down while setting up the camera, it would leave, but a radio shack $20 lookalike would come home with the reporter & the reporters didn't know the diff & couldn't be bothered to learn. In 2 months we had one left and it was smashed as if a fire truck had run over it, about 1/2" thick. Maybe it did for all I know. One failed with no visible damage in a week, sent it back, they fixed it, we had the tape on the air about 10 days later when it went away again, sitting on a stand in full view of the rolling camera while interviewing a football coach. You have no clue how destructive a reporter, who is gung ho to get the story, alligators in the pool be damned, can be to even the relatively heavy SM58. Better than 80% of whats out there, at <50% of the price, but not indestructible. Cheers, Gene -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene> is up! My views <http://www.armchairpatriot.com/What%20Has%20America%20Become.shtml> BOFH excuse #388: Bad user karma. A pen in the hand of this president is far more dangerous than 200 million guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens. _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
