"Romeo Rondeau" wrote in
. net:

Yeah, but there's a lot of guys in here that brag about their
expensive mic and preamp combos and make fun of other folks that use
different gear. Sometimes they even insult their intelligence or
hearing when they disagree. It's a little club, just like the
audiophools. I've heard the same kind of stupid **** coming from
"working pros" as the **** coming from the audiophile type people.

As one of the guys in here with expensive mics (relative to the topic,
at least) I can say that having come from the world of cheap mics, I
would only go back under duress.

My first electret condensers came from Olson's (yeah, I'm that old.).
Then I went through a whole series of whatever I could afford as a
high school and college student. I inherited an RCA 77D, followed by
a pair of AKG C451's. I then went Chinese with pairs of Rode NT-2's
(very early issue) and MXL V67's (later Dorsey modded).

My go to microphones now are Schoeps, DPA, and BLUE. I still have and
use the Rodes and MXL, but they only come out in unusual
circumstances, or when I just need more mics.

On the preamp side, I started with the built-in amplifiers of Pioneer
reel-to-reel recorders, moved up (yes, up) to an original Mackie 1604,
then to a 1202 VLZ, then to Great River and finally to CraneSong.
Nowhere along that path do I look back, although the jump from Great
River to Crane Song was more sideways.

In my experience, my more expensive microphones capture more sound. I
don't mean louder, I mean softer. They capture signal well below the
loudest level being captured, and do it better than cheaper
microphones. Off axis response is better. Noise levels are lower.

The preamps also create less noise and capture more of what the
microphone sends their way.

On the grand scale, I do not own expensive microhones. The most
expensive in my collection run $1,000 to $1,600 each. A U-87
currently runs about $2,220 and a U-89 is over $2,500. And those are
"standard" micophones.

There are jobs for which an inexpensive microphone is absolutely the
best solution, but there are more applications in which the right
expensive microphone will outperform it.