A year ago I purchased a Rode K2. The day it arrived, I fired it up and was
dissapointed with it. It was very dull and quiet from the address side. In
figure-8 mode, it was *much* brighter and hotter from the back of the mic.
There was also a constant rumble that made it unuseable.

After contacting Rode, I was told to "bake" the mic for 10 minutes in an
oven at 100 degrees celcius to rule out a moisture problem. After 10 mins,
the mic did indeed seem to sound better. Soon after, I packed all my mics
up with silica, and stored them in a chest fitted with a closet heater to
keep them nice and dry while I built my home studio.

Recently the home studio was completed, so out came all my mics.
Immediately the Rode proved to have the same problems as before. So I
contacted Rode again, and was told to send it on to the local agents, which
I did. The local agent decided the problem was with the tube and replaced
it with a new one from Australia. The mic ran out of warrantee a couple of
weeks after I sent it for repair and I was asked to pay for the new tube,
etc, which I did.

Several weeks later, I have received the mic back. I'm finding consistantly
that I have to have the mic on for an hour to an hour and a half for it to
be stable enough to use, otherwise the rumble and other noises are just too
loud. It is now brighter and louder from the front, but still nothing like
as loud as the rear diaphragm when in figure-8. The mic has the highest
self-noise of any condenser mic I own (this includes a couple of nasty
chinese mics). Another problem is that any slight movement of the mic
generates an electronic sounding buzz.

I'm just totally un-impressed with this mic. With the power supply, it's
heavy and expensive to ship, and to be honest, after a year, I'm sick of the
hassle. I'd sell it, but could not do so without feeling guilty for
slipping someone a dud. I honestly feel like taking a hammer to it.
Needless to say, I don't see any more Rode mics in my future.