Bored? How about a microphone shootout?

[sjmarky]

Well, this looks like all the comments, so here's les big reveal:

1 - CAD e100s
2 - Techzone Stellar X2
3 - Deity Synco Mic D2
4 - Apogee MiC USB

The e100s appears to be recently discontinued and replaced by the e100sx, with a street price of around $300. It's a US-made mic, and includes an integrated shock mount and built-in low-cut filter. The others don't, so I had it off for the shootout. On, it definitely removes some rumble at the source. Interestingly, it's a hypercardioid, with a sensitivity range even tighter than the D2 shotgun.
The X2 at $200 is hand-built by a small US company, and supposedly emulates the $3,000 Neumann U87. Are you convinced? I traded an Audio-Technica mic I wasn't using just to try it out.
The D2 is a short shotgun mic at $259 which supposedly sounds the same as a $1,000 Sennheiser 416. Does not come with a shock mount.
The MiC is also now discontinued and replaced by the MiC Plus, which goes for $259. It's extremely small if desk space is an issue, but at that price no bargain (I got mine used on eBay). Of course, this is the condenser capsule, pre-amp, A/D converter and USB interface all in a 4"x1.5" package, so something has to give. I keep it on my desk in case I want something better than the internal in my MacBook.

[lurcherlover]

I have several mics I use for narration.

Best mic: Royer R101 ribbon mic used with back rather than front gives the best results on my voice.

Second best mic: AKG C414 XLS condenser with various polar patterns. I use on hyper-cardioid and this works very well

Third best mic: DPA 2006C omni mic - great sound but obviously picks up slightly more room sound. (I have a pretty dry room with less than 0.5 sec reverb).

Fourth best mic: Beyerdynamic M201 dynamic mic. Surprisingly good and very cheap at about £170 - Hyper-cardioid again.

Fifth best mic: Sontronics Sigma - active mic (original version). Ribbon -not too bad on voice but terrible shock mount that transmits any vibration very loudly!

The two best mics (Royer and AKG) are also the most expensive and also the DPA is pretty expensive too.

I would love to get the Earthworks Ethos as it sounds like a great mic but it's expensive at over £700 and it would probably sound no better than the Royer. (Unfortunately the Royer R101 is no longer made and has been replaced by a cheaper version which is OK but not quite as good as the R101).

I mainly record at 10-12 inches from mic and keep well below -4dB and mostly around -10dB. Of course I have to bump up the dB level for LV.

I'm a great lover of ribbon mics as I feel these give the most natural result but there are plenty of other great mics out there - if you can afford them - and I can't really these days. I make really good music recordings with all these mics as well - the DPA's are wonderful with close miked piano, for example.

[loon]

I've used an older version of the AKG 414 mic and found it phenomenal. If I had a couple thousand dollars sitting around I'd happily buy a pair. The current ones are even quieter than those of 20 years ago.

[lurcherlover]

I've used an older version of the AKG 414 mic and found it phenomenal. If I had a couple thousand dollars sitting around I'd happily buy a pair. The current ones are even quieter than those of 20 years ago.

Yes, the C414 XLS has an A weighted self noise of only 6dB and I think that's also on the omnidirectional setting. I find the hyper-cardioid setting very good for narration, and it's only slightly behind my Royer R101 ribbon. I think personally (although I may well be wrong as my hearing is not so good now in the high register) that some of the extremely expensive mics are no better, like those Neumann U87's which are over £4,000 - and even the latest cheaper Neumann's at around £1,000 are about the same quality as the AKG C414XLS, which is around £630. (I paid £580 three years ago). But that's just my opinion, and of course the average Librivox narrater does not want to pay a lot for a mic, and in some cases the $200 mics can be perfectly adequate.