About Cost

The microphones’ costs fall into three distinct ranges: The B&K, Beyer and Neumann cost between $1,300 to $1,800, the Sennheiser, Audio-Technica and AKG are bunched between $650 and $725, and the Shure and Audix are between $180 and $280. It is no coincidence that the three most expensive microphones have the flattest frequency responses – this is a performance characteristic that is expensive to achieve. Microphones at one-half that cost (the Sennheiser, Audio-Technica and AKG) will give results that will be equally or more preferable for the recording of vocals, as well as other tasks. For half of that, again, you can pick up the Shure or Audix. The Shure is a known quantity and the Audix, while variable, will compare favorably with the more expensive mics in many cases.

The Big Picture

There are a lot of things to consider about a microphone. Beyond frequency response and listeners’ preferences, cost, performance factors like noise, sensitivity and dynamic range, versatility (usefulness for a variety of tasks and features like rolloff switches and variable patterns), and issues of client preference, image, and the like all play a role in your buying decisions. So, I’ve laid out another table, showing (in order of importance) subjective preference, frequency response, cost, versatility, sensitivity, peak level, noise, image and my own subjective ratings (Hey, I’m writing this thing; I gotta be allowed to have some fun too!). I’ve scaled these all on a zero to 10 range, for a little easier reading, and some of my ranking is Quick’n Dirty. Here ‘tis:

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	The Big Picture: Ratings of a Variety of Factors for these microphones, on to a scale of 1 - 10, where 10 is way cool and 1 is not cool. A score of Zero indicates no data. There's no overall rating because I don't think it's fair.