Got one in the mail today, from a fellow RAPper, and checked it out on
my voice. (Sort of bass-baritone) I ran it through an MP20 clean with a
Blueberry cable, no HPF, and listened through AKG 240 'phones. The
vocal tone I used was my low-rent Mason Adams-like "warm & friendly"
but a bit lower in pitch. For the non-cognoscenti, he does the
Smucker's commercials. In fact, I used some Smucker's copy for part of
my evaluation. "If you could taste time..."

My quickie comparison mics were, in no particular order: BLUE Mouse,
AT-4050, Shure KSM 32. I listened to all mics in cardioid, flat, with
no pad.

Compared to the more expensive mics, it had less low end than all 3
(Not as 'warm', or should that be not as 'fat' ? I'll try to work
'punchy' into the review somewhere...) Intelligibility was very good
as a result. It's a bright mic, brighter than even the 4050. But bright
mics are the trend, one I don't particularly care for. Guess I'm not
'modern' enough, or haven't wrecked my ears on Walkmen & I-Pods.

It should work really well on some deeper voices (Greg Brown springs
to mind). I thought that sibilants were pretty hyped, much more than
the other 3 mics (and more than the frequency curve would suggest), and
suspect that it would problematic on many female vox. Even for my
voice I would tempted to run it through one of my White passive EQs to
tame the high end a bit.. It probably wouldn't be my first choice on
acoustic stringed instruments like fiddle or mando.

BUT, and it's BIG but, the mic is only $100. All the mics I compared
it to are 5x or better the cost of this one. And it's a pretty good
mic. So I tried it next to another $100 condenser, the dreaded Octava
MK219. OK, ok the 219 is a pretty weird mic, very colored, strange
high end, lots of odd body-resonance artifacts. I only ever use it on
National resonator guitars. The 2020 is head and shoulders (and
several other body parts) above the Octava in every meaningful
category., but I'd still use the Oktava on Nationals.

Conclusion: It's a pretty damn good mic for 100 bucks, that should be
useful for a lot of things (what an insight - and only a year behind
the curve). It ain't great, but it ain't awful, and sometimes it's
pretty good. The construction is very good. At the price point, it's
amazing. Oh, and comparing 5 mics at one time tends to make me a little
punchy. Told you I'd work that in somewhere...

-glenn

What does non-cognoscenti mean?


(yes, I'm kidding)