A
Disappointed
NB Edited a few months later - I've just bought a Shure SM48 from Thomann, it's a brilliant budget mic, very good second best to the SM58, and a much better purchase than this one.
Having seen all the very positive reviews of this I thought I would give it a try and had high hopes. I use SM58 mics for vocals and clarinet in an acoustic group.
I tried it in my home studio which is fairly dead acoustically (plenty of carpet and soft stuff), used both our small PA (Behringer 205D active monitor) and a pair of active studio monitors (Samson Studio GT). I was able to compare it directly with an SM58, singing the same passages with each, and also as a guitar mic.
I also tried it in a sound check at a gig in a large cafe with quite a lot of hard surfaces, again with the 205D.
In the studio the mic sounded quite good. It was a lot more sensitive than the SM58, with more upper-mid 'presence' but a bit too much sibilance. The bass-cut switch was excellent in eliminating most pops. It felt like it could be a good mike for a gig where you need an attacking sound, maybe if there is a lot of audience etc to absorb the higher end. Taking off a little treble on the mixer helped with the sibilance. The sound was different between PA and Studio monitors, as you might expect, but the difference between Shure and t.bone was similar in both cases.
But in the venue it was problematic as the extra mid-high sound resonated quite a lot in the room. We tried the clarinet and the sound was quite unpleasant as the resonance was right in the middle of the clarinet's range. I expect some care with the EQ and volume might help with that but the SM58 seemed to work fine "out of the box" as it has in most places.
So I think it might be useful for some venues where the acoustics are particularly dead, or a singer who needs some extra presence, and as a spare, but not a mic I would plan to use at most gigs.
Having seen all the very positive reviews of this I thought I would give it a try and had high hopes. I use SM58 mics for vocals and clarinet in an acoustic group.
I tried it in my home studio which is fairly dead acoustically (plenty of carpet and soft stuff), used both our small PA (Behringer 205D active monitor) and a pair of active studio monitors (Samson Studio GT). I was able to compare it directly with an SM58, singing the same passages with each, and also as a guitar mic.
I also tried it in a sound check at a gig in a large cafe with quite a lot of hard surfaces, again with the 205D.
In the studio the mic sounded quite good. It was a lot more sensitive than the SM58, with more upper-mid 'presence' but a bit too much sibilance. The bass-cut switch was excellent in eliminating most pops. It felt like it could be a good mike for a gig where you need an attacking sound, maybe if there is a lot of audience etc to absorb the higher end. Taking off a little treble on the mixer helped with the sibilance. The sound was different between PA and Studio monitors, as you might expect, but the difference between Shure and t.bone was similar in both cases.
But in the venue it was problematic as the extra mid-high sound resonated quite a lot in the room. We tried the clarinet and the sound was quite unpleasant as the resonance was right in the middle of the clarinet's range. I expect some care with the EQ and volume might help with that but the SM58 seemed to work fine "out of the box" as it has in most places.
So I think it might be useful for some venues where the acoustics are particularly dead, or a singer who needs some extra presence, and as a spare, but not a mic I would plan to use at most gigs.
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A
Good MIC at a great price!
I bought this mic on spec, thinking it might be close to a Beta 87 and I was not disappointed. It's great for micing up a guitar amp and has a nice frequency response - without the "harsh" middle of some other mics. There is also a handy roll-off switch for shelving the low-end if you need that. I suppose you could describe the sound as "warm". I also used it for some vocal work but I didn't like it - I don't think it's suited for vocals, as although the recording was pristine/clear it sounded a little dead to me, so I stick to using it on guitar amps. Fantastic product for the price - every home studio should have one (or several)!
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